The story of Wherry & Sons Ltd

SEVEN GENERATIONS OF A FAMILY BUSINESS

(Book review by Lionel Morris reproduced from the
Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 15th December 2009)

In the picture (left to right) The board of directors in 2009, Dan Wherry, Nancy Wherry,
James Wherry, Emil Wowk and Peter Smith

The funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson had taken place, then Napoleon banned trade with the English. Who could blame him? A few weeks earlier, the British had laid siege to the French port of Boulogne. How times have changed since 1806.

However, despite two world wars and more, one local firm has not only survived these changing times but has thrived.

In the newly published Seven Generations of a Family Business - The Story of Wherry & Sons Ltd by Nigel Watson, James Wherry, the sixth generation to run the firm, traces the history of the organisation right up to the present day. His son, Dan, is now at the helm.

Speaking to the Evening Telegraph from the firm's head office in Cherryholt Road, about half a mile from where the business began, James said: "We are very proud to have survived this length of time, which is due, in no small part, to the wonderful staff who have served us so well through the years."

The book describes how the roots of the business, which supplies pulses for seed and human consumption, were formed when Edward Wherry opened a grocery shop in North Street, Bourne. But it sold more than groceries. He was also a candlemaker, draper and sold hops to local breweries. Later, he became a wholesaler, delivering groceries to village shops, using the canals and roads to bring in supplies.

Edward senior died in 1815, the year of Waterloo, and two of his sons, William and Edward, took over and expanded the business. Edward ran the drapery side and William the grocery operation.

It was in the 1880s that William started what was to become one of the key parts of the business. He began selling seeds to local farmers. This venture expanded and the brothers bought a waterside warehouse in Eastgate, Bourne. At this time, dealing in peas was only a small part of the business. Seeds became the main interest of William's son, William Robert. He was born in 1841 and started at the firm as an apprentice. Two of Edward's sons, Robert and George, joined their cousin although George later went on to study surgery.

By now, the railway had arrived in Bourne and this helped the expansion of the firm which was now sending clover, mustard and rape seeds to wholesalers in London, Hull and Scotland. By the 1870s, William junior was in charge and the seed business had expanded so much that an independent firm, W R Wherry and Company, was formed for seed and hop production and trading.

It was now that Robert established another business to take over the drapery operation, trading as R L Wherry & Company. The grocery arm continued as E Wherry and Sons.

With the rising population, demand for corn, peas and beans grew but there was the problem of finding the labour to sort the peas. So local housewives were called upon to do the job which in 1878 allowed William to start supplying dried peas to the fledgling food processors.

Into the early part of the last century, and William junior brought three of his sons, Albert, Frank and Arthur, into the firm. Robert's links with the business ended with his retirement from the drapers. By now, the corn and seed business was growing, with links in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, Russia, even South Africa and Tasmania. Also expanding was the pea side of the business with machinery replacing the hand pickers and extra jobs being created by a new purpose built factory in Church Lane, Bourne.

The grocery business was booming and in 1901 a branch opened in Church Street, Spalding. By comparison, drapery sales declined after Robert Wherry's retirement.

In 1909, the family's three firms were wound up and a private limited company, Wherry and Sons, was formed. Six years later, William Wherry died, having created the largest firm of exporters of English wheat. His eldest son, Albert, became chairman, playing a central role in the grain trade during the First World War, for which he was made an OBE in 1918.

The other main part of the business was wholesale grocery which thrived under Frank Wherry. By contrast, the company wound up the drapery and retail grocery operations in 1919.

During the post-war years, British agriculture almost collapsed. From the early 1920s until the 1930s Wherry's corn department lost money. Despite the collapse in prices, wheat remained the country's most important cash crop. This prompted the government to set up a commission with one of its members being Albert Wherry. The outcome was The Wheat Act of 1932, which used revenue raised by taxing imports of grain and flour to subsidise UK wheat growers.

With the Second World War came the need to concentrate on home production, and Wherry's corn department and the wholesale grocery business thrived. During the war, Albert, Frank and Arthur were helped by the next generation, Albert's son, Edward (also known as Ted), Frank's son, Victor, and two of Arthur's sons. Donald and Phil. Donald spent most of his time trading with the local farmers while Phil was responsible for selling grain in the wholesale markets.

The increasing volume of peas was one major contributor to the company's success during the war but its warehouses for pre-processing peas were some way from Bourne. The company applied for a new warehouse in 1944 and after a lengthy delay permission was granted but the organisation had to endure an even longer wait for new machinery to arrive. After the war, the company returned to exporting grain. Alongside the wheat went barley for malting and animal feed, plus cereal seed.

In the 1950s, the next generation of the family, Ted and Victor, took over running the company from Albert and Frank, being appointed joint managing directors in 1956. Three years later, James Wherry, Victor's son joined the company. In just over ten years, father and son would become the firm's driving force, also being joined by Dave Randall, who was appointed to the board in 1963 and remained until his retirement in 1982.

Encouraged by post war optimism, the company forged ahead with a new animal feed mill in South Street, Bourne, in 1954 followed two years later by a new cereal seed cleaning plant in Wherry's Lane, Bourne. Into the early 1960s and the organisation started sending feeding beans to Europe. By now the company had acquired the latest pea sorting machinery.

This region remained the centre for growing peas and beans. with Wherry's supplying fish and chip shops as well as processing and canning operations worldwide which to this day remain vital to the firm's future.

James became a salesman and was allocated an area around Sleaford. Some of his customers still trade with the company. Frank Wherry died in 1957 after almost 60 years with the business. As the grain market grew, the formation of larger groups of millers and shippers weakened independent businesses such as Wherry & Sons. Victor Wherry was concerned about this. He realised that even in the 1960s the firm's future lay in it developing its manufacturing arm.

At the end of 1966 the company bought the station site in Bourne and the site in Marsh Lane, Boston, which it operated as Witham Wharf.

In 1969, James Wherry and Simon Turner became directors. The grain business continued to lose money but every other department was in profit, and moves were made to start reinvesting in the pea and seed businesses. On Ted's retirement in 1972, he and his family's shares were bought by Victor. This meant that he and James had a controlling interest in the company. They wanted the firm to concentrate on manufacturing peas, beans and seeds and to cut back on the merchanting operations but one of the priorities was to rid themselves of Witham Wharf which had been a victim of costly labour practices. Eventually it was sold but Phil Wherry died just as the transaction was going through with Dave Randall and Simon Turner assuming his responsibilities.

On Simon's departure from the business, Dave became grain sales director. By then, the company's original head office in North Street was moved to South Street, alongside the pea factory.

An important development came when the board decided in the late 1970s to join a consortium investing in the rights of a new dried pea variety called Progreta which was to become the leading marrowfat variety in the UK and France. The variety lasted until this year, when seed ceased to be available.

In early 1980 it was decided to close the feedstuffs business. Victor Wherry was replaced as chairman by James in 1980 due to ill-health. A further change came two years later when Dave Randall retired and was replaced by John Porter as seeds director until his retirement in 1993. Dr Peter Bateson was appointed to the board the following year after ten years as company advisor.

The early 1980s proved difficult for many firms because of the state of the world's economies but it was decided that the company should buy land suitable for industrial and commercial development, thus providing income from renting out the units. In 1982, the South Street premises were sold and a new office block was built on the station yard site in addition.

Meanwhile, the traditional market for peas was changing in the UK, so the company started looking towards the Far East.

By now, James's son, Dan, had joined the business and he became part of three generations, working alongside his father and his grandfather, Victor, who died in February 1988. As Dan joined the company, it was decided to close the grain operation.

Then the company took what Dan described as "a make or break decision" in 1996. The cereal seed business would close, the processing of pulse seed would be contracted out and the processing of pulses for human consumption would be centralised and relocated in the larger cereal seed processing warehouse in the station yard.

In early 1997, Dan attended the annual dinner of the British Edible Pulse Association where he met Will Thrupp, MD, of Maviga UK, part of an international company involved in processing and supplying dried pulses. As a result, Wherry supplied 700 tonnes of split peas to Africa, opening a new market and starting a relationship with Maviga that continues to this day.

Later that year, Dan was appointed a director, joining his father and grandmother, Nancy Wherry, as well as Peter Bateson and Emil Wowk, the latter joining as company accountant, becoming company secretary and financial director. Now, as peas and beans were being shipped around the world, came another boost when the company took over part of Monsanto's plant breeding· interests, buying its winter bean programme.

Sadly, one of the architects of the company's revitalisation programmes, Peter Bateson, died in November 2000. In 2002, Dan was appointed managing director and Peter Smith joined the board.

The company's station yard premises have since been sold and, regrettably, a joint venture to relocate production to a brownfield site in Leicestershire has since failed. Yet today, Wherry & Son's products are sent throughout the world, more than three quarters of its turnover heads for foreign shores, a far cry from the company's humble beginnings in North Street more than 200 years ago.

NOTE: Seven Generations of a Family Business - The Story of Wherry & Sons Ltd, Founded in 1806
by Nigel Watson was published by St Matthew's Press in 2009. Further inquiries
from James Wherry, Wherry & Sons Ltd, Cherryholt Road, Bourne, PE10 9LU.

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