It’s astonishing the number of “spins” that can be placed on what we thought was a fairly straight-forward statement of intent, writes Mick Goss.
Mick Goss – ‘Going nowhere’
Anything from Summerhill’s ‘business-rescue’ and the sale of the farm at the one end of the spectrum, and an acknowledgement of the good sense of the course we’re adopting on the other.
Read ‘Winds Of Change’ published at end February
Simply put, we are going nowhere, other than tidying up the numbers which is long overdue in a difficult operating environment, and making space for the things we set our sights on some years ago, and which will hopefully be a long-lasting part of Summerhill’s legacy to the industry.
Numbers in the breeding game were a fundamental part of fulfilling the demands of the market some years ago, as well as an element in competing for the Breeders’ Championship. T
hose who were present at the Equus Awards seven years ago on the occasion of our fifth Breeders’ title, will remember me mentioning that without demeaning the value of the Championship, there were other means by which we’d like to measure the success of our endeavours.
To achieve that though, and the projects we had embarked upon at the time, like the School Of Management Excellence and our hospitality training programme at Hartford House, we would need to make space from a numbers point of view.
Rightly or wrongly, our attachment to the broodmare families upon which we built the farm together with the excellent people who’ve made it possible, delayed that decision until now. However, my illness last year recalibrated our thinking, and I did not want to be 80 or pass on before then, regretting my neglect of the other things that called for my attention.
Those issues in tandem have led to this day and the decision that has accompanied it.
For the record though, I should mention that for the 38 years we have been here, Summerhill has been profitable throughout, and everything you see on the farm today has, like the history of mankind, been forged on the back of horses.
Thankfully, all eight of the farms that make up the whole are paid for, and we have a sound base on which to plan for the future, as well as bankers with whom we celebrated 100 years as a family in 2016.
While we will no longer be in the “numbers” game to the extent that we were, the eventual model at Summerhill should mean we’ll have a farm carrying a similar complement of horses to the likes of Highlands, Maine Chance, Mauritzfontein and Wilgerbosdrift etc, while because of the extent of the land, we will of necessity be retaining substantially more people than would be the norm if our activities were confined to horses alone.
I should be quick to add that our staff have been heroic in prescribing and supporting the processes we’ve engaged in, and stoic in accepting the outcomes.
While not everybody will necessarily agree with this, we believe, and our track record supports it, that we have established a relationship with our people which in the context of South Africa today, has served as an excellent example of how this country can work, and in bringing the business to an appropriate size, we will be able to encourage the growth of our new generation of managers who have been skilled through international scholarships and their passage through the School Of Management, to cope comfortably with the challenges of the future.
In this they will be supported by a core of our long-serving senior managers, and with a little more time on my own hands, I will hopefully be able to contribute more to this cause as well.
I should end with a
n admission, and that is that it’s not our style to respond to rumours through the public domain.
However, the fear which appears to have been put out there is unsettling not only for our staff, but equally for our customers, not to mention its impact on the local breeding community. And without appearing to be immodest, it’s clear from the concerns shared by some in the broader racing fraternity that it might even have permeated the national psyche.
So, to put minds at rest and to reassure those who want to hear us, once again we are not going anywhere.
We are simply repositioning Summerhill so that it can benefit from the lift-off that will eventually follow the normalisation of our export protocols, a project in which we are deeply immersed ourselves at this time.
