SME Business Focus: Steep rises in the price of agricultural commodities may be hurting consumers who are seeing the price of basics such as bread soaring but will be welcomed by the UK�s farmers.
Steep rises in the price of agricultural commodities may be hurting consumers who are seeing the price of basics such as bread soaring but will be welcomed by the UK's farmers. While they are paying more for their fuel and fertiliser, recent rises in the price of agricultural land suggest a growing number of people believe there is a good living to be made on the land.
In this week's SME Focus, we highlight the resourcefulness of one farmer who came up with an innovative response to the problems faced by the sector after finding that there was value in what other people felt was rubbish.
Name: Brian Binnie.
Age: 40.
What is your business called? Denfind Stone.
Where is it based? Monikie, just outside Dundee.
What does it produce? From a quarry dating back to the 19th century, which has lain dormant for almost a hundred years, we gather and recycle stone, which used to be regarded as waste material.
The business centres around both the production of hand-picked dyking stone and copes for drystane dykes, and guillotined stone which is ideal for use in cladding houses and wall building.
The stone is very Scottish in character and is in keeping with buildings in and around the Dundee and Angus area dating back to the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
We supply reclaimed stone from demolition projects ideal for reconstruction.
We also own and run a 1740-acre farm. This is primarily arable with cereal crops, with a smaller percentage of the business in suckler herds.
What services does it offer? In addition to supplying stone, we advise users and builders before and during project development. Denfind Stone Design specialises in specifically commissioned concepts and develops on-site display pieces at Denfind Stone.
As an added service,we have introduced instruction courses in the proper use of the material, customised to suit builders, dykers and also the enthusiast, providing professional training on construction, how to use the stone and how to get the best out of the material and impressive results for all types of projects.
To whom does it sell? We mainly sell to house builders, construction companies, developers, country estates, dykers and building supplies depots. The BBC sought Denfind Stone product for a wall construction project on Nick Knowles' gardening programme.
What is its turnover? The company started in 2004 and the first year's turnover was around £170,000. Turnover for the current year is projected at over £600,000, so we are very happy with progress and we still have so many ideas to introduce and intend to grow in to new areas.
How many employees do you have? Eight full-time employees and four part-time. As specialist projects come along, that can fluctuate with the addition of support and seasonal workers.
My wife Alison and myself are really part-timers, simply because we also run a farm business, have a young family of three boys and are involved in other initiatives that also need our time. But the running of Denfind Stone is not secondary by any means and we both certainly put in the hours.
Alison and I work great together as a team - I come up with all the crazy ideas and Alison tempers them and me with level thinking and realism - but the good thing is she never says to me "That won't work".
When was it formed? In 2001 we had made the move to buy over the farm and land from what was Panmure Estates. This stone quarry site was included in with the purchase.
The raw material - the basis for the business - has been literally lying on the ground for over a hundred years, but Denfind Stone was formally set in place in 2004. That was after three years of dodging around a number of ideas, then testing them out and converting our plans to reality.
What were you doing before you took the plunge? Losing money at farming. Seriously though, our cereal and livestock farming took a real hard hit for a good number of years from the late 1990s and we had a real challenge on our hands to bounce back from that.
Denfind Stone came about very much as a diversification from farming, and it was only because we were so convinced of the potential for growth and sustainability that we stuck at it to make it happen. We are, at the same time, seriously avid farmers at Denfind Farms.
Why did you take the plunge? One of the main incentives for Alison and I was that we wanted to build something tangible which our three sons - Fraser 10, Greg 8 and Alistair 3 - can at some time take over. We want them to have security for the future and, at the same time, an appreciation of the hard work that goes towards success.
I am a great believer in gut feeling and, if I am told that something I believe strongly in cannot be achieved, it makes me all the more determined to prove otherwise.
Initially I asked around, got in touch with different authorities, including the Dry Stone Walling Association, did research on the internet and, fairly quickly, made contact with Dave Sinclair, who was listed as a master craftsman.
Dave has received the association's award for best dyker in Scotland, three times, and he is also well known in Canada and USA, where he taught the skills and craft of dyking.
I was actually nervous when I first invited him to come down to see us and have a look round the quarry to give his opinion on our plans. It was like the ad with the Man from Del Monte - he was either going to say yes or no! Thankfully his reaction was "This is great stuff". Dave (Dyker Dave as we now call him) now works with us as stone manager and runs our courses on site.
New legislation introduced around the time we set up Denfind Stone effectively banned rural land owners from removing dykes - so they have to retain them and maintain them. For that they need suitable dyking stone - so right away demand was there and, in a way, protected for us.
How did you raise the start-up funding? We had the confidence to invest money in to the business and, on the back of our plans, managed to get a rural business diversification grant. The rest came from the bank. We set up in partnership with Dundee Plant who supplied us with all the kit so that we could screen the stone. That gave us a big leap forward in our capabilities right away.
What was your biggest break? There were two, and the second break followed very quickly after the first.
The first break was achieving approval from planning for our proposals. Everything suddenly became reality and we were set up and running.
The second was when Guild Homes came to source our stone for cladding. That led us to getting the guillotine, a fair size investment but one we could not afford not to make, and we worked closely with Guild to get the guillotined stone to the highest standard for cladding.
What was your worst moment? The time it took for everything to go through the proper channels, such as planning and all that was entailed with that.
From coming up with the idea to getting the green light for go-ahead with the business and being able to sell our product took more than a year.
What do you most enjoy about running the business? The thing I find most rewarding is seeing Denfind Stone used well in all sort of places.
I love it when people call up having seen the stone used somewhere and want to order a batch for themselves.
There's a great satisfaction of having a business grow from a big hole in the ground - using material that was thrown aside as rubbish and recycling it.
What do you least enjoy? I can honestly say there's nothing I don't enjoy about the business. The weather can be a hang-up now and then - but I've been farming all my life so I can handle that okay.
What is your biggest bugbear? It may sound like a cliché but there just aren't enough hours in the day. There's so much we want to achieve and I can get really frustrated if I am bogged down with paperwork rather than getting outside and working hands-on. Harvest time is a particularly busy time for us, as you can imagine, but everything goes smoothly because of the solid teams we have in place and we even manage to hand the reins over now and then so we can have a holiday.
What is your ambition for the business? I want to see the business continue to grow. We have some fantastic and innovative ideas for use of the stone and we want to showcase these, in particular to builders, architects and garden designers. There has been a lot of interest shown in the courses we have introduced so, hopefully, Denfind Stone will be able to claim some responsibility for the revival of specialist skills and the traditional craft of drystane dyking.
What are your top priorities? Grow a successful business to give security to myself, my wife and our family; keep our customers happy with the highest quality of product, service and training; enjoy a good work-to-life balance; contribute toward the resurgence of dry stane dyking; make sure I keep seeing new projects using Denfind Stone product wherever I go.
What could the Westminster and/or the Scottish Governments do that would most help? Do more to support the natural stone industry; show concern for local heritage and character by encouraging the use of indigenous stone sourced locally for local construction projects.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned? Go with your gut feeling - ignore others saying it won't work.
How do you relax? Time with the family, socialising with friends and the occasional game of golf. Oh, and coaching the ladies curling team - very relaxing.
