Managing Director
Location: Lincolnshire
Competitive Package plus house
The Organisation
G.H. Chennells Farms Ltd is a family-owned farming business based in Lincolnshire, farming approximately 5,000 acres. Developed through the complementary strengths of brothers Michael, Andrew and Patrick, the business has grown into a diverse, commercially focused operation of real scale.
The farm produces around 12,000 tonnes of potatoes, 7,000 tonnes of onions, 6,000 tonnes of carrots, alongside parsnips, beetroot, grain and sugar beet, supplying a wide variety of established customers. In addition, the business manages c.20 residential properties, has significant cold storage and SFI agreements, while also exploring diversification projects.
G.H. Chennells Farms Ltd is both operationally complex and commercially ambitious, with strong foundations and clear future potential.
The Role
This newly created Managing Director position represents a pivotal appointment as the business enters its next phase. Reporting to the Board, the Managing Director will shape strategic direction and take overall responsibility for performance, ensuring the business is structured and positioned for long-term success and for future generations.
Key priorities include ensuring the farming enterprise continues to deliver high standards of productivity and profitability, driving commercial negotiations and agreements for all farm sales, purchasing all inputs, managing landlords and contract farming agreements, evaluating and prioritising capital projects, strengthening commercial resilience and leading wider negotiations including energy and insurance agreements.
Internally, the Managing Director will provide clear leadership and accountability, empowering the existing team while introducing greater structure, forward planning and performance discipline. Crucially, the role will reduce management pressure on Michael and Patrick, while maintaining the values, heritage and entrepreneurial spirit of this well-established, high performing family business.
The Candidate
We are seeking a commercially astute and strategically minded leader with experience in managing complex agricultural or land-based businesses, ideally with exposure to root crops. You will bring strong financial and operational acumen, with the confidence to take ownership of a sizeable and diversified enterprise.
Candidates may already be operating at Managing Director, Farm Director or General Manager level, or be a senior leader ready to step into a broader P&L role. Experience negotiating commercial contracts, overseeing capital investment decisions and leading teams will be essential.
Equally important is personal style. The successful individual must be able to build trust with family shareholders, empower and develop the next generation, engage and motivate farm teams, and introduce professional governance and reporting without losing the culture that has underpinned the business’s success.
This is an exciting opportunity to lead a significant farming enterprise into its next chapter.
For more information on this unique and exciting opportunity, please contact Sophie Wood on info@edensearch.co.uk or 020 3795 7735. All applications and enquiries will be forwarded to Eden who are exclusively retained by G.H. Chennells Farms Ltd on this project.