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News
September 2025 Member Update
Posted: September 1, 2025
Farming teaches us that every season brings both opportunity and challenge, and this year is no exception. With the show season behind us and harvest drawing to a close, it’s the right moment to update you on how the Group is adapting, investing, and positioning itself to support our members and customers in an environment that is changing faster than ever.
Over the past few months our team has attended all the key agricultural shows across the country, giving us the chance to meet members and customers away from the bustle of busy sale days. These events remain one of the best ways to connect directly, listen carefully, and understand what matters most to you. While trade naturally dominated many of the conversations, it was equally valuable to hear your views on other issues affecting the sector. This feedback shapes our priorities and ensures our efforts are focused where they are needed most. For ANM, these important fixtures are about building relationships, demonstrating commitment, and reinforcing principles I believe are central to everything we do – integrity, professionalism and service.
One of the ways we have responded is by strengthening our support to members through our stock-on-agreement and short-term credit schemes. These are practical, user-focused schemes provided to keep businesses moving in a climate where cash flow is often under pressure. Our policy of paying on the day of sale – or within four days electronically – remains a key point of difference for ANM. It keeps our services straightforward, transparent, and aligned with building strength in members’ and customers’ businesses.
Of course, we face many of the same pressures as the wider sector. Rising operating costs have forced us to take steps to protect the Group’s position. The necessary adjustment in commission rates, while still leaving us with the lowest rates in the sector, provides added resilience at a time when meaningful government support remains limited.
Not all challenges are within our control. The unexpected closure of Scotbeef – without any prior warning – came as a real blow to members and to the Group. We had provided both financial and practical support since selling the site in 2019, and had worked hard to help make the project a success. The outcome is disheartening, but our response has been to focus our efforts on placing and selling the increased number of livestock now coming through our hands, whether through direct marketing or the sales ring.
Industrial and commercial auction divisions
Strength and robustness remain at the heart of our strategy. The addition of Sweeney Kincaid to the Group has further reinforced our industrial and commercial arm. Alongside Thainstone Specialist Auctions, we are the largest provider of these services in the country, with throughput already exceeding £25 million this year. Demand for used equipment remains strong, and our mix of live online and timed online auctions allows us to reach the right buyers, achieve strong values, and remove the geographical limitations of purely physical sales. Changing buyer behaviour has only accelerated this shift, with each sale attracting large and competitive audiences, and further underlining the transparency and fairness that sit at the heart of the auction system.
Estates division and property
Our Estates division continues to expand its reach, covering Caithness, Orkney, and far beyond the North East. By the end of June, the team had sold 25 properties worth over £12 million. The work is not just about finding buyers — it involves providing professional, independent advice on complex issues such as inheritance tax changes, succession planning, and navigating a shifting regulatory landscape. The division’s growth reinforces our role as a trusted partner, able to offer solutions that balance commercial realities with the long-term needs of our clients.
Closer to home, our own property developments are gathering momentum. Interest in Thainstone Business Park is ahead of expectations, with strong approaches from major companies. Our long-term aim is for the Park to become a key commercial hub for future generations, and we are already engaged in strategic projects that, should they be successful, will benefit the wider region. Like all large-scale developments, these projects are subject to a range of factors and there is no guarantee they will all come to fruition. However, being part of this process and at the table for these discussions demonstrates the value and potential of the Business Park, both for ANM and for the local economy.
Thainstone Events
Events remain an important part of Thainstone’s growth story. Working with our catering partner, Harry Fraser, we continue to expand our programme. Regular farmers’ markets, live music nights, Christmas parties and Taste of Christmas all help to increase footfall and reaffirm the venue’s place in the local events scene. These activities do more than fill the diary — they bring new people into the business, raise our profile, and create opportunities to connect with different audiences.
None of this would be possible without the skills, professionalism, and commitment of our staff. The Board and I are hugely grateful to them, and to those who serve on the Board itself, for their contribution. As a major employer in the region, our drive to ensure the co-operative’s future viability is not only about securing our own position — it’s also about sustaining jobs, skills, and economic activity in the communities we serve.
We know that progress doesn’t come from a place of complacency. That is why we remain alert to the challenges ahead and focused on pursuing the opportunities they present. Part of our role is to ensure that the voice of our members is heard – loudly and clearly – in the places where decisions are made. We will continue to lobby vigorously, using the strength of the co-operative to make policymakers aware of the reality on the ground, and to push for action – not just words – that will help secure a thriving rural economy fit for the future.
The message remains clear: without producers, there is no supply chain. Domestic production must be protected and supported. The policies that shape our sector must be built on facts, informed by real-world experience, and delivered with transparency. ANM will continue to make that case so that the policies shaping our sector are workable, commercially sustainable, and support the long-term viability of our members’ and customers’ businesses.
Kind regards,
Grant Rogerson
Chief Executive