Free Range Egg Production
John Bowler's is one of the largest producers of Lion Code Free Range Eggs in the UK and have approx. 2 Million laying hens on contract. With over 150 farms and 30 years experience in the Free Range Egg market, we offer an excellent package for new entrants into an established franchise operation.
We have operated a successful franchise-style Free Range Egg production system for thirty years and over this time we have learned practically everything there is to know about the egg business. This enables us to offer a complete package to our producers – to the best of our knowledge there is no one else in the egg industry who offers such a comprehensive package, or even comes close. We do this because we want our producers to succeed, and our producers' success is our success.
The Bowler package includes dealing with your planning application, financial forecasting, business planning, groundworks, site development, health and safety, buildings and equipment, pullets, feed, full training and support, transport, old hen removal, collection of eggs and a long-term market.
Major Misconceptions
It appears that there are some major misconceptions about dealing with Bowler’s that I would like to address.
Many people think that they will earn more money from going it alone and becoming an independent egg producer. I feel this is very doubtful because at Bowler’s we buy an incredible amount of products compared to most independent producers which gives us a greater buying advantage to secure more attractive deals.
In very simple, broad terms we keep a margin from the difference between what an independent egg producer would buy at and what Bowler’s buy at, which has the general effect of making input and output costs similar for Bowler and non-Bowler egg producers. We make an incredibly small margin out of a massive turnover and the margin we retain from volume purchasing is returned to our producers in the form of field support, management systems, pullet inspections and the benefit of our business acumen in buying.
All this funds the free of charge support that significantly increases the chances of a Bowler producer obtaining higher margins. Basically, buy it independently to get a worse deal and no business support!
Sadly this information also dispels the myth for some who think Bowler egg producers buy better than independent egg producers. I feel confident on many occasions this statement is probably true but it’s one that I wouldn’t like to guarantee or unintentionally mislead anyone with.
Going on from this and looking at it from a different aspect, I feel that Bowler producers probably make more profit than independent egg producers because we do an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to make things happen and to prevent problems from arising. We are on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support any producers who do experience problems. Furthermore we have come across most of these problems before and therefore instantly know what to do. We are also able to identify the signs of potential future problems before they occur. Free range egg production is very easy to get right under our umbrella, but it’s also easy to get wrong if you don’t know what you are doing so, on average, I would expect Bowler producers to make more profit than the independents, which has been confirmed to me from farm consultants and bank managers.
I frequently hear of independent producers making more money, but in all my time in the free range industry, I have yet to see an independent producer’s financial paperwork to back up these statements. However I’m not surprised by this, as I don’t suppose anyone would comment about how worse off they are compared to the average Bowler producer because they would probably be totally embarrassed and possibly look rather stupid, incurring all the extra grief and aggravation, just to earn less money.
