After gaining a BSc Hons in Agriculture at Newcastle University in 1976, John joined the family salad and vegetable farming and marketing business founded by his father in 1952. After transferring the role of CEO to his eldest son, John is now the Chairman of the G’s Fresh group of companies, which has sales of £720m per annum in the UK, Europe and the USA, employing over 9,000 people. Integral to its business, is its expertise in growing and, together with members of the G’s Grower producer organisation, grows 14,000 hectares of salads and vegetables in the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Spain and Senegal. The business also produces several thousand hectares of arable crops including maize for an anaerobic digestion plant which produces all the energy needs for the group’s mushroom farm.
John has served on several Government committees including the Agrifood Tech Council and the National Food Strategy and, more locally, he has served on the CPCA Economic Commission and Climate Change Commission. In 1996, John was awarded an OBE for services to Horticulture and Exports and in 2022 he was commissioned by DEFRA to Chair an Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain. John is currently a Vice President of the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation.
John has been involved in the establishment of TIAH (The Institute of Agriculture and Horticulture) and is a founding member and current director of MSIN – the Modern Slavery Intelligence Network. John is also a founding member and current Chair of Fenland SOIL, a not-for-profit farmer led organisation aiming to inform and develop ‘whole farm’ land use policies, aimed at achieving climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement in the Fens.