A new specialist agricultural bank is set to launch later this year, offering financial services specifically designed for British farmers and backed by key agri-business firms. Charlotte Cunningham reports.

Established through the collaboration of experienced bankers, farmers, and technology experts, Oxbury – based in Chester – will provide farmers and growers with a bespoke range of competitive lending and savings products. These will help producers to manage their input costs and grow their businesses at a crucial time for UK agriculture.

Critically, services will be offered through the bank’s founding distributor partners: Hutchinsons, Frontier Agriculture, Mole Valley Farmers and KW, part of AB Agri.

“There’s no other UK-based bank focussing its thinking, expertise and empathy solely on the agricultural market and the needs of British farmers,” explains managing director and co-founder, Nick Evans.

“Oxbury’s founding team and investors are farmers and market leading agri-business companies that know the importance of farmers to the UK economy and rural communities. It’s founded by the industry for the industry and is designed to work in partnership with long-established agri-businesses that farmers know and trust.”

Flexible and convenient

The bank’s core product is Oxbury Farm Credit, which will provide a flexible, convenient and financially competitive alternative for farmers to a bank overdraft or trade finance. Initially, this will be available to medium-to-large arable or dairy farmers who are current customers of the distributor partners.

Further expansion across agricultural sectors and with more distribution partners will take place over the coming months and years. Longer term loans will also be available to drive investment in the productivity and sustainability of UK farming.

“We know from our close and long-standing partnerships with our customers that Oxbury’s relationship-based approach to its customers matches our own approach and values,” says David Hutchinson, CEO of HL Hutchinson.

“The current and longer-term trends in British agriculture are creating a requirement for new and innovative approaches to managing farm business cashflow and Oxbury is expertly and uniquely placed to provide flexible finance through its Farm Credit product.”

Competitive rates

Savings accounts will also be available to any UK individual or business at competitive rates, with the guarantee that every pound saved is lent to British farmers and no-one else.

Accounts will be accessed through secure online and mobile applications. Oxbury will offer a personalised service for farmers through experienced agricultural relationship managers to ensure all customer needs are met.

“With our involvement in the whole supply chain from crop inputs through to grain outputs we understand the critical need for farmers to access flexible cash flow resources,” says Mark Aitchison, CEO of Frontier Agriculture.

“We also recognise the need for a modern banking service to use bespoke digital systems tailored to support the farmer to manage their invoices, payments and cash. Oxbury has designed an easy to use, intuitive solution through Oxbury Farm Credit which will allow our customers to buy their farm inputs and finance their payments at the optimum time that suits them.”

Oxbury expects to launch to market midway through 2020.