‘A hill farmer at heart’: entrepreneur who built up £80m firm dies

Died: September 10, 2024

Sir John Campbell, who has died aged 90, was based for most of his life at Glenrath in Peebleshire’s Manor Valley. From small beginnings there, he and his wife Cathy, later joined by their family, built up one of Britain’s largest and most successful egg-laying and packing businesses. Its annual turnover now exceeds £80m and it produces and packs the daily production from around two million hens. With 240 employees, Glenrath is now the biggest private employer in the Scottish Borders.

Sir John, however, remained at heart a hill farmer with a special fondness for breeding Blackface sheep. At conferences, at which he often spoke, he delighted at introducing himself as “John Campbell, diversified hill farmer,” raising a wry chuckle from those in the audience who knew how much more he had achieved in his long career.

John Park Campbell was born in Greenock, the middle son of three. His father was a butcher who was later to diversify into hill farming. John never forgot the sound of German bombers flying low overhead on their way back from attacking the docks in Greenock and Glasgow. Nor did he forget the desolation left behind by the raids. It left him a lifelong abhorrence of war.

John, his older brother Keith, much later to serve as a Church of Scotland minister in Broughty Ferry, and his younger brother Douglas were all educated at Strathallan School, Forgandenny.

John and Douglas were to return from school to farm together at Strachurmore, an Argyllshire hill farm which their father had rented and then bought. In 1961 John, Cathy his wife of four years, and their two eldest children moved to Glenrath.

Money was tight and on the “advice” of an unsympathetic bank manager, the best 60 acres of the farm had to be sold. Cathy who came from a farming family on Loch Fyne had poultry experience, so the couple started buying day old chicks and selling them as point-of lay-pullets all over the south of Scotland. One cold night, when the gas for the heaters ran out, all the pullets were saved by bringing them into the farmhouse.

Read more

Tough footballer who took bus home from Scotland games

Renowned artist and teacher who created 36 views of landmark hill

The market for point-of-lay pullets disappeared when the British Egg Marketing Board was disbanded forcing an abrupt change to egg production supplying direct to retailers, mostly corner shops in Edinburgh. Through time supermarkets joined the customer mix and the Glenrath business began to expand rapidly with over 100 hen sheds built over the years and egg-packing facilities expanded to match output. Land purchases saw the farmed area increase to over 15,000 acres. To Sir John’s great satisfaction this included the 60 acres he had been forced to sell decades earlier. He ruefully noted the increase in price per acre.

A Nuffield Scholarship gained in 1976 took him around Europe and the United States looking at egg production methods, many of which he was to introduce at Glenrath as the business expanded.

Sir John’s other farming interests were not neglected however. He started selling Blackface rams at Lanark in 1961 when his pen averaged a rather disappointing £18 per head. In typical fashion he persevered and has been rewarded many times since most notably for topping the market in 2003 at £49,000.

Likewise at Peebles Show, of which he was a president and then honorary president, he showed Blackfaces for 56 years until eventually to his absolute delight won the supreme championship with a ewe.

(Image: Sir John Campbell and Lady Catherine)

He was a leader of Peebles Council and Provost for nine years and a long time elder of his local Manor Church. He was an honorary fellow of the Scottish Rural College and a UK chairman of the Fellows of the Royal Agricultural Societies. He was a director and twice a vice-president of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society.

Within the poultry industry he received many awards and honours including lifetime achievement awards from the British Free Range Egg Producers Association and the International Egg Commission.

Sir John, who was knighted by the Queen in 2017 for services to agriculture, is survived by his wife Lady Cathy, their children Karen, Ian, Keith and Colin, 11 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. It was a source of great pride to Sir John that all four of his children and many of his grandchildren are employed in the family business.

At The Herald, we carry obituaries of notable people from the worlds of business, politics, arts and sport but sometimes we miss people who have led extraordinary lives. That's where you come in. If you know someone who deserves an obituary, please consider telling us about their lives. Contact garry.scott@heraldandtimes.co.uk