Estate Management & Agriculture Consultancy

Our agribusiness services

Here at Heath Chapman Associates, our ambitions are to help you to increase the profitability and sustainability of your agriculture or land based business whilst also improving and enhancing the surrounding environment.

Our core agricultural consultancy services include:

• Strategic farm business planning
• Estate & Farm Management & Administration
• Feasibility studies
• Financial management
• Lending brokerage
• Ongoing farm business management
• Business adminstration & rural grant applications
• Written communications

A more detailed explanation of these individual services is as follows:

Strategic Planning - This means defining the short- & long-term lifestyle and financial ambitions of the farmer or business manager, their family and other dependants;

Our rural consultants assess both the assets within the business (tangible assets including farmland, farm buildings, machinery, labour, available funding etc; and intangible assets such as skills and interests, knowledge, flexibility etc) and the opportunities and threats within the wider market environment;

Exploring and identifying the different enterprises and diversification projects that may be suitable for the business then selecting and matching the enterprises which most closely meet the ambitions of the agribusiness managers and their family

'New Project' implementation & monitoring - The success of any land based business depends on any plans being converted into reality in a timely and efficient manner.

Typically, the implementation and monitoring of a new strategic plan will focus on four key areas which are vital for success, including:

• Customer expectations
• Production techniques
• People
• Finances

Our project planning techniques will help to streamline the implementation of your plans

Feasibility studies - A thorough appraisal of any planned diversification project is critical to its success. We undertake feasibility studies on a whole range of farming and non-farming diversifications.

Financial management - We analyse past performance using, as a starting point, the farm business accounts which are converted into more useful management accounts.

From these, and other relevant information, we will prepare detailed cashflow forecasts and projected P&L and balance sheets for the coming years. Such information allows you and us to test the robustness of the present financial framework and provides valuable management information to allow you to run your business efficiently

Lending brokerage service - Businesses, especially land-based businesses, rarely change their banking arrangements and we strongly believe that building a good, long-term, working relationship with your bank manager will lead to high levels of service.

However, there are times when it may be beneficial to look to the wider marketplace and we provide a complete service to help you make fair and accurate comparisons.

(Please note that commercial mortgages are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Therefore, we are able to assist you to find the correct lender and facilities for your business.  What we don't do, nor are we authorised to do, is give advice and guidance on regulated mortgages or other investments regulated by the FSA, such as residential morgages)

Ongoing farm business management - We tailor this to meet our individual clients' needs, ranging from providing guidance when implementing enterprise changes through to a comprehensive business management service, including weekly management of farm staff, input purchasing, marketing & selling produce and managing farm machinery

Business Administration - The burden of paperwork grows ever larger and means many landowners seek assistance with the likes of Single Farm Payment Scheme / Entry Level Scheme / Higher Level Scheme applications, cattle passport management & other livestock records, and grant applications to take advantage of financial assistance offered by the government and the EU

Environmental consultancy - As 'Linking Environment & Farming' (LEAF) members, we are firm believers in the principles of Integrated Farm Management (IFM). We can help you to complete your LEAF audit and can provide advice and guidance to help you join the LEAF Marque Certification Scheme (we encourage you to visit www.leafuk.org or to call us if you require more details)

Written communications & public speaking - The public's perception of farming is slowly improving after years of negative publicity. However, as advocated by LEAF, it is vital that we all do more to promote ourselves, our industry and the food we produce.

There are many situations where good, written or spoken communication is vital. For example, when preparing a grant application, as a PR exercise (eg open farm days; or preparing a quarterly newsletter) or to provide information to interested parties including, amongst others, customers, suppliers and the media

Whatever your needs, we are keen to visit you without obligation to evaluate your particular requirements and to create the correct solution for you and your partners.

We offer a flexible charging structure to suit your requirements, with either hourly, half-day and day rates, or on a pre-agreed fixed-fee basis, with payment in instalments or upon completion of the project.