Lincolnshire-based agri co-op Openfield Group has reported a £50,000 profit in its results for the year to 30 June 2025.
Operating costs fell 5.6% to £13.5m (2023 £14.3m), while group revenues were down 13.7% to £479m (2024: 555m).
Net assets (exc. pension fund) rose to £29.3m (2024: £29.2m), while total exported volumes were 196,000 tonnes (2024: 244,000 tonnes).
The UK’s only national grain marketing and arable inputs co-op, Openfield has a turnover of £479m and is owned by around 4,000 British farmers, supplying some of the country’s leading brands.
It says the result, down from £0.8m the previous year, comes “against a backdrop of yet another challenging harvest for 2024, which once again saw weather intervene to frustrate on farm efforts”.
The 12 months saw low harvest volumes “which presented real challenges” with a tighter margin across lower volumes, but the co-op said it achieved a “strong result” helped by past restructures and profit improvement plans.
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Openfield said these changes were designed to help it withstand low volume years and ensure continued sustainability in challenging markets.
“During low volume harvests we refuse the temptation to trade generally to replace reduced volumes,” said chair Philip Moody, “as we know that to do so would deflect us from focusing entirely on our members’ interests.
“This behaviour emphasises value to Openfield and to our members for their unswerving commitment to us, which is and always will be, the bedrock of a successful co-operative.”
Looking forwards, the co-op stressed its ”duty and responsibility to support the co-operative movement and wider farming industry”, adding that it will “do everything in its power” to help members face into the challenges facing the sector.
“Openfield recognises that co-operatives should work together more widely and where possible, identify opportunities to pool their respective resources,” it adds. “By combining collective strengths and working together and being focused entirely on the farmer, without the need to seek to generate profit for external shareholders, they will continue to differentiate co-operatives from the commercial sector.”
