From a Cornish cow shed to a national brand: How HSBC UK helped St. Ewe scale to build a multi-million-pound egg business

For most shoppers, buying eggs was a practical decision, rather than a choice based on brand loyalty. That changed when Rebecca (Bex) Tonks and her parents, Richard and Christine, created Europe’s first B Corp free-range egg packer. Today, the iconic St. Ewe Free Range Eggs are found in supermarkets and Michelin-starred restaurants nationwide.

Bex has transformed her small family farm in Cornwall into a free-range egg packer, processing up to seven million eggs a week. It’s been a rapid rise, supported throughout by the bank the family has trusted for decades. “We have a strong relationship with HSBC UK. We’ve been banking with them since 1967 as Midland Bank,” she explains. HSBC UK recognised that farming needed dedicated expertise, setting up a specialist agricultural department in 1958. Today, HSBC UK has a network of more than 100 agriculture managers dedicated to supporting farmers across the UK.

“My father started farming in 1967, turning one Jersey cow into a pedigree herd,” says Bex. “When milk quotas tumbled, we moved into chickens and began investing in poultry.” In 2006, recognising growing interest in food provenance, Bex decided to move into free-range eggs. She bought a second-hand egg grader and launched the St. Ewe brand in local stores.

Demand rapidly grew from local shops across Cornwall, then the Southwest, until the business became a national brand supplying some of the UK’s leading supermarket chains. Keeping up with high-volume national retailer contracts, however, meant St. Ewe had to scale at pace.

A key part of this is a network of family farmer producers across the Southwest, Wales and Northern Ireland, who share St. Ewe’s values around hen welfare, quality feed and sustainability, and can supply the necessary quantity of eggs. Meeting that demand also required investment in a modern, purpose-built 50,000 sq ft grading, packing and processing hub - Egg HQ.

For years, St. Ewe operated as a self-funded business, financing the new hub, however, required external funding. The challenge was that the expansion plans depended on projected growth. At its existing size, the business could not comfortably support the full debt from day one, so repayment would depend on delivering its growth plans. To continue to grow, St. Ewe needed a banking partner that believed in its vision and was prepared to support its long-term plans. "Investment in a poultry unit is expensive. You're not going to see returns in three years; you're probably going to see them in 15 or even 20 years,” Bex says. “Farming's a long game and HSBC know that.”

Paul Blundell, HSBC UK’s Agriculture Relationship Director for Southwest England, has worked with Bex and St. Ewe for over eight years and has a deep knowledge of the nuances of the sector. “The most important thing for me is understanding what a farming business wants to achieve, what the owners want to actually get out of the business, and then tailoring our approach to help them meet those aims,” says Paul.

Bex and her team prepared a detailed funding proposal outlining what they needed to finance, how the investment would benefit the business and how it would support further growth. “Bex blew me away with her vision and what she wanted to achieve and that hasn't abated,” says Paul. “We bought into their future vision and belief that they would grow their business, which justified the outlay of such a big investment.”

With HSBC UK’s backing, St. Ewe opened its HQ and packing centre in 2022 and has since outstripped its initial projections. “Paul and the HSBC team enabled our next phase of growth. We had a five-year strategy for the unit, but having secured orders from supermarkets nationwide we fulfilled it in 18 months,” explains Bex.

Now St. Ewe has moved into the liquid egg market, supplying the hospitality industry. This diversification is helping St. Ewe reduce waste and stay on track for further growth over the next five years. The business is also investing in artificial intelligence to analyse data with the aim of improving hen welfare and increasing production.

“This should free up our team to be able to get out to see our partner farms that need support and really hone in on areas of the business where we can add value; making us more proactive rather than reactive,” says Bex.

“When a business continues to grow at this pace, we have to run to keep up with it,” says Paul. “St. Ewe began with a loan and overdraft facility, but now we understand its plans and the means to achieve them, we’ve offered a more sophisticated range of products, including equipment finance, foreign exchange facilities and revolving credit facilities.”

HSBC UK’s support is about more than financial performance.

In St. Ewe’s case, supporting the business means investing in its team, local economy and values. “An investment in St. Ewe is an investment in the whole community. Bex is brilliant at identifying her strengths and her weaknesses and she brings in people to build a robust leadership team capable of managing rapid scale,” says Paul.

To that end, St. Ewe launched the St. Ewe Academy, which offers apprenticeships designed for rural career paths. “The Academy covers everything from farming to electrics to marketing,” explains Bex. “I get a huge kick out of seeing people grow and elevate their networks and fulfil their massive potential.”

For Bex, people, be it her team, the local community or the end customer, are everything. “In order to be able to grow our business, having team members who are far more capable than yourself is number one. But also, our mission as a business is to crack open the potential of every egg. And I see our overall business as our overall flock. We nurture every person within that, from farmers right the way through to our customers and customer relationships.”

1. Have a clear vision
   Know where you want to take the business, build a plan that shows how growth will happen, and consider building capacity before its required, so you’re ready when bigger opportunities come along.
2. Grow with your values intact
   A key part of our brand is our proud Cornish heritage. We aim to support, nurture and grow local talent, and draw additional support when required. Strong teams, trusted relationships and a clear purpose then help you scale without losing what makes your business different.
3. Choose partners who believe in your future
   Whether it’s a business partner or banking partner, it’s important to surround yourself with those who will grow with you; that support and share your vision and ambitions, regardless of your current business size.