Living Farms founder recognised in top awards
24/5/2018
Richard Devlin grew up in Perth. His farming roots sparked an interest in an agricultural career which led him to become part owner of one of the most successful agricultural consulting and research firms in Australia; Living Farms. The company Living Farms was started in 2007 and is based in York in Australia. It was established in conjunction with John Foss who wanted to provide information to members of a growers group. Richard was bought on as an equity partner and joined the business just a year before taking on the role of managing director.
Richard Devlin grew up in Perth. His farming roots sparked an interest in an agricultural career which led him to become part owner of one of the most successful agricultural consulting and research firms in Australia; Living Farms.
The company Living Farms was started in 2007 and is based in York in Australia. It was established in conjunction with John Foss who wanted to provide information to members of a growers group. Richard was bought on as an equity partner and joined the business just a year before taking on the role of managing director.
Upon completing university, Richard was working for a research company in his local area. After a short time there he had the opportunity to travel for a couple of years working in South America, Canada and the United Kingdom. Before travelling he contacted John about the agricultural opportunities back home and John noted that he should record the different trends in agriculture globally. While in Cambridge he had the opportunity to work as an agriculture researcher; a job that allowed him to explore the trends in farming systems in the United Kingdom.
This experience taught him a lot. He learned that agriculture research is similar no matter where in the world you look at it. He notes that it is this type of research that will lead the way for increased food production in Australia and also globally. Richard explains that it was while he was thinking about how his insights would translate to grower group in WA that he got word from a contact that a research and grower group business in York had come up for sale. This was a business that was previously owned by Bill Roy who was a bit of a legend in WA and a pioneer for agronomy and agricultural research. Richard and John thought it made sense to combine their knowledge and skills to have a decent size grower group along with a research business, and that is exactly what they decided to do when they purchased the business.
It was in 2008 when things started to really take shape for Living Farm. Today it is a self-funded grower group and an agriculture research business. At startup, the company operated on a small scale to ensure that it was being run within its means. When business started to pick up they started to upgrade the equipment and plant on a whole so that they could do more.
“One of the fonder memories in the early days was seeding with the old plot air seeder that came with the business when we bought it,” Richard said.
Since then the business has grown; both the research aspect and the grower group aspect of the business. Both Richard and John are proud of their work to date and have plans to keep growing and keep providing the agriculture industry with information it needs that will be a benefit to all involved.
Richard’s and Living Farm’s success was recognised at the 40Under40 Gala and Awards Presentation Evening last month which celebrated the success of 40 entrepreneurs under the age of 40.
Richard was selected as a top four finalist out of more than 100 candidates and Living Farm won the Small Business category.
He explained that the recognition has prompted him to step back a bit and acknowledge his success.
“When I was nominated and looked at all these amazing businesses, I probably didn’t think that I was in with a shot but when I reflected during the application process, I had to think about what I have done with the business,” he said.
“I realised I have probably taken my success and the business’ success for granted but once it was on paper, I realised that we were doing a lot for farmers, international agribusiness and rural communities, so once that was all taken into account I could see why we did as well as we did and we should be proud.
