Openfield is a British grain marketing and arable inputs co-operative based in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. It is one of Britain's largest agricultural companies and Britain's only national co-operative in its field, with a turnover in excess of £500m. It markets grain for farmers and grain stores. In other countries, mainly

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, this type of company is known as a

wheat pool A wheat pool is a co-operative that markets grain (mostly wheat) on behalf of its farmer-members. In Canada in 1923 and 1924, three wheat pools were created. They were farmer-owned co-operatives, created to break the power of the large for-p ...

. The head office is based on the former

RAF North Witham Royal Air Force North Witham or more simply RAF North Witham is a former Royal Air Force station located in Twyford Wood, off the A1 between Stamford and Grantham, Lincolnshire, England about north-northwest of London. The site opened in 1943 ...

and prominent customers include Coors UK and

Waitrose Waitrose & Partners (formally Waitrose Limited) is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still se ...

. Openfield is a member of the Fertiliser Industry Assurance Scheme, and work with the fertiliser supplier GrowHow UK. It is also a member of the Agricultural Industries Confederation.

History

It was formed in November 2008 from the merger of Centaur Grain (of

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * Andov ...

) and Grainfarmers (of

Micheldever Micheldever is a village in Hampshire, England, situated north of Winchester. It lies upon the River Dever . The river, and village, formerly part of Stratton Park, lie on a Hampshire grass downland, underlain with chalk and flint. Parts of th ...

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

). It is now the largest UK farmer owned grain marketing co-operative and one of the largest companies in Lincolnshire, by turnover. The Colsterworth site opened in 1980.

Centaur Grain

Viking Cereals joined Centaur in 2002. Centaur had been formed in 2001 when Group Cereal Services (GCS) of

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshi ...

joined Lingrain of the

East of England The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, ...

. It was based at Goodworth Clatford in north Hampshire.

Grainfarmers

This began as the Southern Counties Agricultural Trading Society in 1907. It was renamed as Grainfarmers Group Ltd in 2003. It had offices in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, Walton (near

Wetherby Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrog ...

Bressingham Bressingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 751 in 305 households as of the 2001 census, the population increasing to 882 at the 2011 Census. History The name Bress ...

, Compton Abdale, Cannington and

. It marketed over 20% of the UK's grain and represented over 5000 farmers.

External links

Openfield

"Anticipated merger between Grainfarmers Group and Centaur Grain Group"
(

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regu ...

, 2008) * {{Agriculture in the United Kingdom British companies established in 2008 Companies based in Lincolnshire South Kesteven District Co-operatives in the United Kingdom Agricultural marketing cooperatives Agricultural supply cooperatives Grain companies Agriculture companies established in 2008 2008 establishments in England