Authored by Suzy Russell, CSA Network and Member of the Landmatch England Steering Group
Collective Enterprise describes farms with multiple land-matched businesses operating from them. A farmer or landowner can “stack” different enterprises on the land, whilst each enterprise is owned by a different person – essentially, they are hosting several different businesses in a way that they support one another, and the host farm, creating mutual benefit.
In this blog, we pick out some of the key learnings from work done in 2023-24, found in full through this Briefing Paper.
There are a number of farms operating a Collective Enterprise model including Wakelyns, Stockwood CBS, Farm-ED, Baddaford Farm Collective, Woodoaks, Fordhall Farm, Kingsclere Estate and Balcaskie Estate. The organisation Pitch Up! has seen the benefits and to some extent formalised the Collective Enterprise model, with Kingsclere Estate and Balcaskie Estate both working alongside them.
Everyone we spoke to used a different structure, from Community Owned CBSs to CICs, Charitable Trusts and Limited Companies. What we found was that structure doesn’t matter – the key was to start. Each case found that it was key to listen to their community and build a plan around those conversations, all the while remembering what their values were as organisations, too.
“If you looked at each business on its own you might say you’d get a better return from doing something else, but when you add them together there is a resilience to the whole estate that you can’t get alone.”
Some benefits and suggestions from the farms we spoke with are:
- Don’t get big, get different and the right size for you; evolve with your community.
- The value of community on your farm can’t be underestimated: for the farm’s health, your health and the health of your community.
- Don’t worry about being too structured, just try something and if it works, go with it. If not, you can always change direction.
- Different businesses bring different communities with them, and joint benefits can be created from shared promotion and visibility for all the enterprises on your farm.
- Diversity gives strength and resilience, allowing you to quickly adapt to changing conditions. You’ll learn as much from your enterprises as they do from you.
- Engaging with the community empowers farmers and reduces reliance on corporate power.
- The presence of a solid community can really help when you need to navigate tricky moments – such as planning permission and fundraising, that could one day be the key to saving your farm.
- Community Supported Agriculture sites can be a really important and inspirational part of a collectively stacked farm.
- Enterprise-stacked farms are supporting our next generation of new entrant farmers and are also helping break down barriers, not just between the farming and non-farming communities, but also between people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
- Stacked businesses can support each other in surprising ways. For instance, new growers at Balcaskie Estate can supplement their income in the first few years before things get going within their business by working for others on the estate. The extra energy and labour that the community can offer really comes into its own for big jobs too, like tree planting, maintenance and fencing!
Find out more about Collective Enterprise and related resources through our resource library.