Ellis Eggs, an egg packer in Wales, has been sold by Jason and Wendy Ellis to Gwesyn Davies, a 29 year old farmer with a background in poultry production.
The sale was finalised in late August, and Jason Ellis, 57, told Poultry Business he would continue to work within the business, but that the time was right to sell.
“We don’t have successors because my children have their own independent career paths that they’ve taken, which is good so we sold it to someone new young and energetic who understands the industry.
“At some point myself and Wendy will step away but we don’t yet know when that’s going to be.”
He said he had visited all the producers supplying the factory face-to-face to explain the change. “They are all supportive and looking forward to the future.”
Ellis said the time was right to hand the business over. “The fact is that you can’t work or live forever, so at some point you’ve got to get out of there. I think in agriculture, sometimes we stay a little bit past our sell by dates and I didn’t want it to get to a point where we had to get rid of it because I was not able to do it anymore.”
He said Davies taking over would provide continuity for the business for the next 30 years. “He has lots of ideas and it’s certainly exciting.”
Ellis Eggs has 12 farms supplying the packing centre, which is based in Aberdare. In 2022, the company told PB it packed around 4,500 cases of eggs a week, and contract packed a further 1,500 a week, supplying Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Welsh retailers CK and Filco.