Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 02
1 Monday, 13th February 1995.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Bowes is here.
4
5 ASHLEY BOWES, Sworn
6 Examined by Mr. Rampton.
7
8 Q. Mr. Bowes, do you give your address as G D Bowes & Sons
9 Limited of Watton in Norfolk?
10 A. That is correct.
11
12 Q. Are you a director of that company?
13 A. I am.
14
15 Q. What is the business of that company? What does it do?
16 A. Pig production and meat production.
17
18 Q. Any other kind of meat besides pork?
19 A. No, solely pig meat.
20
21 Q. Has the business of the company always been solely pork?
22 A. No, it has not. I would wish to just change one
23 statement I have made. We do, on our farms, we do produce
24 cattle and sheep as well as pigs, but at our meat
25 processing plant we only produce pig meat, and we have in
26 the early 80s changed our policy at our meat plant and only
27 process pigs and pig meat.
28
29 Q. Do you supply pig meat to McKey's of Milton Keynes?
30 A. Yes, we do.
31
32 Q. What proportion of your business does McKey's custom --
33 I am not talking about financial, I am talking about
34 percentages -- roughly what percentage of your business
35 does McKey constitute?
36 A. Roughly five per cent.
37
38 Q. Do you have amongst your customers any of the big
39 supermarket chains?
40 A. Yes, we do, such as Tesco's, Sainsburys, Safeways, and
41 more latterly some of the discount stores.
42
43 Q. How many people do you employ?
44 A. About 450 full-time and 250 part-time.
45
46 Q. How many pigs does your company own in total?
47 A. Roughly 100,000.
48
49 Q. Is that sufficient source of supply for the purposes of
50 your business or must you buy pigs from elsewhere?
51 A. We buy pigs from other producers, yes.
52
53 Q. Again in percentage terms, roughly speaking, what
54 proportion of pigs do you buy in from other producers?
55 A. Roughly 60 per cent. That is on our factory
56 production.
57
58 Q. Some of your pigs, as we have all seen from your brochure,
59 are kept outside; is that right?
60 A. That is correct.
