Our History
Pengelly Farms Ltd is run by father and son duo Phil and Simon Rogers
The farm business has grown a lot in the past 50 years, from a starting 137 acres in South-West Cornwall to approximately 3,000 acres across the county, and a business growing potatoes for the UK and beyond. Read on to see our history…
1967-2010 – The story begins
The Rogers family have been farming continuously since the mid 1800’s, and in 1967, Simon and his family moved to Pengelly Barton Farm. In 1970, Simon’s son Phil was born.
In 1994, at the age of 24, Phil completed his studies at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. He returned to Pengelly Barton, working alongside Simon on the then 300-acre farm to grow salad potatoes & brassicas, while managing a herd of Friesian dairy cattle and a drove of fattening pigs.
In 2004, the decision was made to sell the dairy herd to help facilitate the building of a 3,500t temperature-controlled cold store and grading facility for the newly founded seed potato business – predominantly growing crisping potato seed for 16 other potato growers across Cornwall.
2010-2016 – Growing spuds while the sun shines
The potato business continued to grow, to the point that the potato acreage passed the 1,000-acre mark and, in 2010, a further 4,800t of cold storage was built on the farm.
In 2013, the farm invested in new grain drying facilities and a machinery storage shed to support the business and its needs. With the growing infrastructure on the farm, 250kw of solar panels were installed on south-facing roofs as a renewable energy source, to reduce our reliance on bought-in energy.
2016-Present – A bigger team and a better farm
In March 2016, construction of a new 1MW output biogas plant commenced, with commissioning taking place in December 2016. The AD Plant site is fed by circa. 20,000 tonnes of maize, sugar beet, rye and potato waste to produce electricity for export into the National Grid.
In 2017, alongside two other growers, Pengelly Farms Ltd formed ‘The Little Spud Company’ – a salad potato marketing company to promote ‘Jazzy’ potatoes to retailers, wholesalers and catering customers, as well as a strong export market into Europe. The company has the exclusive rights to grow and market Jazzy potatoes in the UK.
Phil’s son, Harry, the third generation of the Rogers family, joined the team in 2020.
In 2022, the farm saw another significant investment with the erection of a further 1,800t cold store – taking the storage capacity for chilled potatoes to 10,000 tonnes. The development also included an extension to the packing shed, a new Haith multi-size grader, a Tomra 3A optical sorter as well as a new farm office and board room for hosting training sessions and meetings.
The Future…
Over the coming years, we’re looking to grow the business further and provide even more quality potatoes across the UK and beyond! If you’d like to be part of the Pengelly Farms story, click to view our current farm job vacancies.
