Guy Watson, owner of Riverford Organic, talks to Compassion about setting up his own business and staying true to his values. Compassion's Lara Richardson interviews a fellow Observer Ethical Award winner.

The Setting

Totnes, Devon – you’d struggle to find a prettier place. Rolling hills and fields with a sweet town centre that practically screams ‘put me on a postcard’. Hidden away, about 10 minutes out of town is Riverford Organic. This family-run business delivers organic produce fresh from the Devon farm, straight to your home.

The Business

Riverford was started up 10 years ago by Guy Watson, a man with no plan he claims, but with a true belief system guiding him in what he wanted to do: “The whole premise was that I wanted to set up a business that was of some value, as opposed to just making money. That’s the way I had been brought up by my parents; that you should try and do something valuable with your life.”

As to why he specifically decided to ‘go organic’ in a time before it was hugely popular, or even well-known with consumers, is a mixture of personal taste and asking local grocers whether they would stock organic produce. Guy says: “I didn’t like handling the chemicals. Now when I see a field that has been sprayed – it almost hurts me. I hate seeing that desecration of nature and I think we should farm in a way that is sympathetic with nature, that doesn’t involve battling with nature. If that means that food tastes really good as well then that’s a bonus.”

Receiving a guided tour of the office and the warehouses, it is easy to see that Guy is well respected by those who work for him. When discussing how he has made a success of running his own organic business, when others have failed, he puts it down to: “A combination of personal determination and hard work, quite a lot of luck, being there at the right time, circumstances – having a farm available, being a farmer’s son and my pigheaded determination.”

The Food

What better way to test the food that Guy and Ben have discussed with me, than by tasting it in The Field Kitchen. Only seasonal, organic produce is served here. We sit around a table for eight, myself and Guy – with six perfect strangers – and we all enthuse over the food. There are five different vegetable dishes and one meat dish for everyone to share. Fennel and spinach with cream is an instant winner, alongside asparagus served with sundried tomatoes. I can honestly say that I haven’t been that well fed in months.

Guy is utterly charming and is genuinely interested in what people think of the food that he is producing. He gets up at the end of the meal to check what has and has not been eaten on other tables. He asks what we liked the most and the least of the six dishes we were offered and tells me: “I’m very proud of the food that we produce generally and particularly of the restaurant here. The success of the business depends on enthusing people to cook. I simply advocate that if you want to be healthy, just eat more fruit and veg.”

The future

When I ask Guy about his plans from here and the future of the business, he says: “I still have loads of ideas and plans of things that I want to do. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve become better at restraining myself as opposed to diving in the deep end which is what I used to do.” Whatever has made Guy so successful with Riverford Organic – be it his principles, his ability to spot a trend, or in his words, his ‘pigheadedness’, he has set up an incredibly successful and sustainable business. If the future of public food awareness and consumption was left in his hands, we might have a healthier human and animal population and a greener countryside.

To find out more about Riverford Organic,
please visit www.riverford.co.uk