The Co-operative Group has carried out a major overhaul of its farming operation Farmcare which is intended to make it more customer oriented. Following the review and a restructuring of the management team, Farmcare, one of the UK's largest farmers, has adopted a three-year recovery plan to achieve a satisfactory return on capital employed. Profits of £6m in 1996 slumped to losses of more than £4m in 2000. The changes are the result of a strategic review undertaken by Christine Tacon after her appointment as general manager of Farmcare last September. She said: "It is our mission to provide a one-stop shop for food processors and retailers looking for quality, value for money produce and crops, grown to the highest ethical and environmental standards. "We will achieve this through innovation, driven by R&D, and by matching and targeting output to the precise requirements of the marketplace. We will keep costs down and margins competitive by utilising our unique scale and by developing expertise in nationally co-ordinated marketing activity." {{NEWS }}

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