Food Manufacture Podcast
Hilltop Honey co-founder and owner: 'It’s either the honey or the bees'
A Bricklayer by trade, Davies’ career came to an abrupt halt when we badly hurt his back at just 21 years old. Now unable to continue with his line of work, the pressure was on to find a new way to bring home an income.
After toying with the idea of selling sports equipment online and even setting up a dog walking business, his true calling would be discovered when Davies parents bought him a beehive.
Coming from a farming background, Davies already had an appreciation for the outdoors and a growing love for the plight of bees, a species so intrinsically linked to the production of food but so criminally overlooked – especially at the time – by the general populace.
But while his heart was set on becoming a beekeeper, Davies learnt very quickly that to make it in the honey business, you needed to be selling the honey or looking after the six-legged producers. It just isn’t feasible to be both.
A sweeter honeypot
“It was a real sad moment for me, because I realised three years in that I’ve got to stop keeping bees to a point, or at least stop investing in the bees,” he explained. “I said to myself, okay, enough about the bees, it’s more about my expertise in selling honey. Quite frankly, I’m better at doing that than I am a beekeeper.”
While this was the greatest challenge in his career – that and having to learn everything from scratch as someone with no industry experience – Davies felt he learnt a valuable lesson on how to approach his business going forward.
“You set off on a journey and you’re dead set on it and you’ve got to be belligerent about it, but somewhere along you’ve got to be honest with yourself – and very practical about the realities of the world – and say, ‘okay, this needs to take a turn now’.
This new outlook of his career came with some side effects. Davies freely admitted the he doesn’t look back often as he keeps forging on ahead. In fact, sometimes there isn’t even time to celebrate the wins!
What he can appreciate though is the hard work of the people that make Hilltop work. Without them and the support of the local community, the company probably would have the same steam to keep pressing forward.
‘Really humbling’
“We’ve got absolute stalwart employees that have been with us through most of the journey and they’ve risen through the ranks as well,” Davies added. “I think watching people grow into [their potential] but they can’t see that themselves is really humbling as well.”
It’s this outlook that Davies thinks a lot of bad employers have trouble with. They can’t see the potential for growth in employees that can be tempered if a little more effort is taken to look beyond what they are capable of at that moment.
“It could be anywhere, but I love that it is where it started, it builds the gravitas around the brand. For me it’s super important – I’ve lived here all my life and being such a well-known good employer in the area and a good one brings so many good things with it.
“Everyone in the area is behind you. Yes, I’ve got 130 employees, but we live in a town of 40,000 people and they’re all behind you trying to make it work. I think that sense of community can get loss and devalued across the UK.”
Meanwhile, following news of March Foods and IBC Simply coming together under a new parent group, Delightful Food Group, back in January 2024, Food Manufacture caught up with its CEO, Ricky Flax in last month's podcast episode.
