Northumberland farming firm expands after snapping up land for seven-figure sum

R Brewis & Partners has been operating in the Belford area since the 1950s and currently runs a mixed livestock and arable operation on around 650 hectares of local farmland.

The family-owned firm has purchased the entire issued share capital of Fordell Farms Ltd, which includes the 50 hectares of land to the west of Belford, and intends to extend its existing agricultural activities onto it.

Three generations of the Brewis family have worked in the R Brewis & Partners business over the last six decades.

Peter Brewis said: “The land we’ve purchased is adjacent to some of our existing fields to the west of Belford and we’ve driven past it pretty much every single day.

“The machinery we already have means we can integrate it easily into our existing operations without incurring any additional overheads and it made clear commercial sense for us to expand in this way.”

Legal advice on the corporate aspects of the deal was provided by Ben Jackson and Mark Adams of Hay & Kilner Law Firm in Newcastle, with colleague Chris Anderson advising on the commercial property side of the acquisition.

Andrew Entwistle, partner and head of valuations at George F White, together with colleague Adeline Jones acted for the selling shareholders, along with Matthew Smith and Hannah Farmer of Andrew Jackson Solicitors LLP.

After heads of terms were agreed, Andrew Entwistle introduced funding for the transaction from the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC).

Robbie Dalgleish, partner at Berwick-based chartered accountancy firm Greaves, West & Ayre also acted for R Brewis & Partners.

Ben Jackson, solicitor in Hay & Kilner’s specialist corporate & commercial team, said: “R Brewis & Partners is a well-established part of the Northumberland farming landscape, but still retains a clear ambition to grow and innovate wherever possible, as this acquisition demonstrates.

“It’s been a pleasure to work with the Brewis family on this project and we wish them every success with their future development of the business.”

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