‘I sacrificed my early twenties to make honey business a success’

At 23, former bricklayer Scott Davies based Hilltop Honey with a £5,000 overdraft and no earlier data of beekeeping or enterprise.

Right now the 37-year-old entrepreneur has the UK’s second-largest honey model, with a turnover of £44mn and a variety of merchandise in main supermarkets. Davies determined to attempt beekeeping when a severe again harm at 22 left him unable to work for a yr.

Primarily based in his house city of Newtown, mid-Wales, Davies employs 130 individuals. The top workplace and manufacturing facility website span 4 acres, producing over 1,000 tonnes of honey a month. In September 2022 Davies diversified into producing peanut butter, at a second website.

In Could 2024, Davies purchased a small Pate manufacturing facility in North Wales, Patchwork Pate. In January, he acquired half a bakery chain, Waterfields, within the north-west. The 2 ventures make use of 350 workers.

In the event you had not injured your again, would you continue to be a bricklayer?
I’d have began my very own constructing agency. I had an absolute want to create my very own enterprise, however I’m stunned to have ended up in food and drinks.

My father is a retired sheep farmer, and my mom labored as a district nurse chief for the county. Once I was out of labor I used to be in an terrible lot of ache, and referred relentlessly to docs and physios. 

I spent my time taking part in pc video games and studying. I got here throughout a e-book about beekeeping and was intrigued. In March 2011 my mother and father purchased me the primary beehive for £250. I spent £100 on a bee go well with.

As I recovered, I painted just a few homes to pay for 12 beehives. After a month I ran out of honey to promote. A industrial beekeeper wants 300 hives.

How did you create Hilltop Honey?
I used to be not an excellent beekeeper, however I quickly recognised a chance. There have been many retired individuals within the nation who had loads of beehives and honey, however they’d no advertising expertise or want to promote it and create a model. The typical age of beekeeper within the UK is 63.

I contacted these bee farmers. Initially they had been cautious, however I went with my father and picked up just a few pots of honey from every farmer. I had simply sufficient to pay them.

The primary 4 years of constructing Hilltop was by way of British beekeepers. We’d purchase the honey and promote it by way of farm outlets, delicatessens and backyard centres. The actual breakthrough got here after I obtained British honey into Holland & Barrett in 2014, and Tesco in 2015. The opposite supermarkets quickly adopted.

I now barely produce any honey myself, however I nonetheless go to many beekeepers to check the honey and verify they’re producing it in the fitting approach.

The Hilltop model as we speak is honey from everywhere in the world. We’re obsessive about provenance. I’ve travelled far to supply the most effective honey, from the mountains of New Zealand and the plains of Mexico to Outer Mongolia and Hungarian forests.

What did it’s a must to sacrifice?
I needed to sacrifice time and my early twenties. Both I used to be packing honey, coping with suppliers, assembly clients, or going out to meals festivals each weekend to promote honey to customers. My buddies and family helped me at any time when they might.

What’s your view on the October Price range?
It’s a catastrophe. I’m undecided what the federal government is making an attempt to perform. Elevating the minimal wage and the national insurance contribution for employers is one factor, however reducing the band (secondary threshold) was a killer blow to part-time employment. At Hilltop, I estimate we will likely be paying one other £150,000 in further prices.

Within the bakery I’ve simply purchased, the 200 part-timers have turn into significantly expensive to make use of, as much as one other £500,000, that may drive us to make some robust choices. In January we had been too far alongside the acquisition course of to again out, believing we may flip round a 98-year-old enterprise.

Do you have got a pension?

I solely began a personal pension 4 years in the past, for myself and my spouse, that is after I felt financially ready, and we pay within the most every year. I consider in the good thing about pensions personally and for the staff.

Are you good with private finance?
I’m excellent. I handle shares and shares and Isas for myself and my spouse. I don’t have a monetary adviser; I’ve simply realized the way to make investments myself. Hilltop has taught me all the pieces you should learn about how firms generate earnings. I learn concerning the world economic system and its influence on shares most evenings.

Do you consider in giving one thing again to the neighborhood?
We’ve got the Hilltop Group Fund, that gives a £10,000 grant to companies and charities inside a 15-mile radius of the manufacturing facility. We sponsor the native soccer staff, cricket membership, golf membership, and rugby golf equipment with kits.

If you inherited £1mn, how would you spend it?
I’d assist my fast members of the family to repay their mortgages and purchase the vehicles they need. I’d not use the windfall for myself. Hilltop has given me all the pieces I would like. I purchased an outdated nursing house with a big backyard in January 2024 and transformed it right into a 10-bedroom home. My mother-in-law and stepfather-in-law stay within the annex.

Your finest funding recommendation?
Stick with the sector you perceive — for me that’s food and drinks — and don’t chase the short cash. Be proud of a gradual return. I do have a portion of my portfolio, 10 per cent, for danger in different sectors. A very powerful factor is to begin investing in shares or a pension as early as you possibly can, to learn from the compound impact.