NFSCO appoints new chairman

NFSCO has elected Charles Bourns as its new Chairman, following the retirement of the inaugural chair Michael Seals CBE after 20 years.

Charles is a well-known poultry farmer from Gloucestershire, who has had many political roles in the industry. He joined NFSCO as a non-executive Director in 2012, where he had responsibility for the Poultry sector, and in April 2020 was appointed Company Secretary. In 2021, he took on the role of Director with responsibility for Information Technology, and oversaw the development and implementation of an app for the fallen stock sector known as KoLeCt.

The new Vice Chairman is Andrew Blenkiron, who will have responsibility for banking. Since 2011 he has been director of the 10,500-acre Euston Estate in west Suffolk, which has widespread livestock interests, but is shortly moving to manage the 22,500 acre neighbouring Elveden Estate. He has also recently been the chair of the Suffolk branch of the NFU.

The director changes come after a period of significant progress in up-scaling the IT element  of NFSCO services via the KoLeCt app. This allows farmers to book collections at any time and to track them in real time, and also facilitates the recording of tag numbers that appear on the invoice. The collection history also stays on the app for three months. KoLeCt, has just hit a major milestone with almost nearly 50% of collection jobs transacted through NFSCO now via the web portal , with every collector in Scotland, using it.

“I am delighted to take up the reins from Michael at such an exciting time for NFSCO,” said Mr Bourns. “The company is going from strength to strength because the model is all about encouraging transparency in the fallen stock sector, at the same time as providing a very simple and quick way of accessing the service, with the support of an efficient and highly trained customer service team that handle tens of thousands of transactions each month, while also sorting out queries and any issues that arise.

“The success of NFSCO over the years is largely down to Michael’s vision, drive and enthusiasm in setting up the company and in steering it through some very challenging times, and as I take over I would like to pay tribute to him and his service.”