In 1935 in Calthrop’s solicitors office in Spalding the first Geest Company, Geest Horticultural Products was incorporated under the direction of Jan and Maarten van Geest. Prior to this date Jan had been trading bulbs between Holland and Britain. Spalding people knew him as John van Geest and with his brother Len featured greatly in the development of this multi-national Company that was to transform the lives of many in Spalding and beyond.
Above is a plan showing the Company structure of Geest in the 1980’s. This firm touched the lives of many people as from modest beginnings this Company cemented Spalding’s position as a centre for the food industry. To understand its significance I estimate at least half of the people I went to primary school with in Spalding worked for Geest or one of its subsidiaries at some time in their lives. The economic, commercial and social impact they had on the area cannot be under-stated.
In the post-World War Two period the Company began to import produce, initially from Holland and then from further afield. Whilst admitting this is a generalisation from my experience, I have observed over the years that it is a particular trait of successful Dutch businessmen in this area, of which there are many, to have a wide view of the world, an open mind and a talent for solving problems. This view of the world means that borders and barriers are overcome and opportunities are grasped. This was key to the growth of the Geest organisation. I believe that a particular trait of self-sufficiency within the business was established as a by-product of the times. By this it needs to be remembered that Britain was being rebuilt and shortages of labour and materials were common place into the 1960’s. Also, businesses of that era were more likely to build in resilience through self-reliance, a weakness of many businesses today.
To explain this view you need to look at the various parts of the business and why they were acquired or started. Grooms was a local packing business that made trays and boxes for the horticultural trade – this was bought by Geest in the 1940’s at a time when wood was in short supply. Indeed, with Swedish and Lithuanian wood supplies cut off by the War, and a period of recovery of supply after the War, they established a wood mill in Nigeria to import wood for packing. The shipping line and haulage were developed so that Geest could ensure their produce was transported as smoothly and quickly as possible reducing waste and improving quality. Geest Print were their own print works that produced all their labels, branded packaging, catalogues and printing. Each of the subsidiary businesses not only served Geest’s requirements, but they were fully utilised by supplying goods and services to other firms locally, nationally and internationally. For example, at one time Geest haulage business distributed stock to Boots stores throughout the country.
In the 1950’s Geest developed the production and importation of bananas and this became the product that the Company is most famous for. John van Geest bough ailing and nearly bankrupt sugar and lime estates in the Windward Isles and established efficient, well-run banana plantations that amounted to 9000 acres at their peak.
Key to the success of the banana business was quality and the ability to ripen to order. They established several centres throughout the country to ripen and distribute bananas from including Spalding.
Ripening bananas is an art using temperature and position in the cold store – but not too cold. If you wish to turn a banana black very quickly put it in the fridge! I have accompanied my friend Gary Thornhill into the ripening rooms on a bank holiday and he showed me how bananas were positioned next to other fruit, such as pineapple, as they produce ethylene when ripening and this ripens the neighbouring fruit.
So we see a company that starts off trading bulbs expanding into all varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as houseplants, roses, shrubs, cut flowers and orchids. It is, however, the Company’s move into food processing that is possibly the key legacy it created in the Spalding area that saw prepared salads and fruit processed into various products that graced the shelves of almost every food retailer in the country. This would then advance into ready meals, pasta products, soups throughout the 1990’s. In 1998 Geest sold off its banana enterprise.
When the Geest Company went public in 1987 it employed over 2000 people in the area. The significance of this is seen in Young Len van Geest’s words of the time: “ Geest takes its role in the community very seriously – it knows it has a responsibility when in some cases it employs whole families.”
The development and training of staff meant that Geest provided excellent opportunities for social mobility. Indeed this applies to much of the food sector which is often under-rated by local educators. Indeed I have seen first local head teachers disparage the food and farming industry and a wish to seek employment in preference to University as “lacking aspiration” in an appalling show of ignorance and lack of respect for the local parents employed in that industry.
The development of the Geest Empire and its core presence in the Spalding area established Spalding as a centre for food imports, packing, processing and innovation. In 1985 the Geest Empire employed over 10% of the total working age population. Added to this are the many other firms and employees that were indirectly employed through the wider economy of the town and surrounding area.
Where Geest led in their presence others followed; some older such as J.O. Sims and some younger such as Worldwide Fruit. Without Geest paving the way I consider it unlikely that it would have attracted the same volume of food production and distribution firms, especially when you look at other areas such as Boston, Wisbech and Peterborough being potentially more attractive in terms of location and road networks. Business attracts business and it is the nature of Geest in particular where they chose an element of self-sufficiency in supply and resources that established a legacy of business to this day.
Being a public Company of such success and dominance in the market made Geest an attractive business for investors. In 2005 the Icelandic firm Bakkavor took over Geest. We see a pattern with three of the main founders of Spalding’s food industry, Smedleys, Geest and George Adams all being taken over by larger businesses and the names being demoted to being subordinate to large brands or company names. Whilst the legacy of an established food industry remains the character of this has changed.
In the past the owners of these businesses were known by local people and were part of the community. This was especially true of Geest and George Adams. Their businesses were successful and national or international, but at the same time local and connected to the community and its people. As such they contributed in many ways in supporting the people of Spalding with great generosity, some of it public, and much of it private. They invested in Spalding and its people. Once these businesses ceased to be family controlled and were taken over the largeness of business is such that the connection with and investment in the community of Spalding was lost. Where it does occur it tends to be in the form of public gestures that have more to do with a corporate desire to be seen to do good rather than a desire to truly invest time, expertise and finances into the wellbeing and development of the area of Spalding and its people.
The direct connection with the community and its needs has been replaced with a corporate soul governed by well-meaning policy statements and gestures – but in reality governed by appearing to be seen to be responsible to local communities rather than involved in them. I do, however, take heart from the fact that in 2023 I see growing family businesses in the area that still have these connections, but the reality is that over time they too will be taken over by larger national and international companies in the future, such is the current evolution.
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