Today (Friday) sees Vernon Edwards officially retire as General Manager of Clynderwen and Cardiganshire Farmers Ltd. His successor is Keith Gosney, the youngest son of a Hampshire dairy farmer.
Vernon Edwards has held the office for nine years since he took over from John Morris.
With some wide ranging rationalisation and a number of mergers he has seen the business grow from an annual turnover of £22 million to over £30.2 million last year. CCF now operates from 19 branches across the whole of Wales and, following a number of difficult years, returned to profitability in 2002.
Keith Gosney studied agriculture at Sparshollt College and went on to obtain an HND in business studies before joining agricultural co-operatives, SCATS and SWF, in the south and south west of England where he gained an in depth knowledge of the needs of the industry.
More recently he has been based in Shropshire as Regional Sales Manager for Associated British Nutrition, one of the largest compounding organisations in the UK.
He is married to Susan and the couple have a daughter and two sons.
Keith says he hopes that he can ensure that CCF may build upon it's previous successes. "We must continue to provide goods and services to our wide range of customers at reasonable cost and to follow a programme of modernisation, as necessary, as we go along," he said.