G.A.HOBBS & SONS LTD.
Any enquiries please contact Bruce R. Hobbs at the above address
The company was founded by Mr George Arthur Hobbs in the early 1900s, starting as a potato, carrot and mangel merchant, which frequently took him to London, where he had a trade stand in Borough Market. After his death in 1932, the business was then run by his son Cecil George Hobbs, and the farm at Little Downham by Maurice Arthur Hobbs, several years later a further farm was purchased at Barway, which was carefully run by Raymond Keith Hobbs. Unfortunately all three brothers have now passed away; the potato merchanting business is now run by Bruce Hobbs, assisted with accounts by Cicely Hobbs , the farms are now looked after by Brian Hobbs.
We are a small, family owned, Potato and Produce Merchanting company situated in the heart of the fens; specializing in the supply of potatoes for the chipping trade throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. We also trade in Onions; Seed Potatoes; Fertilizers; potato sacks, onion nets and operate a grading station.
Potatoes
The main potato varieties used for the chipping trade are Maris Piper and Fianna. Other varieties are also bought and sold for use in the general wholesale trade, the packing trade and the processing industry; included in these varieties are Cara, King Edward, Estima, Desiree and others.
All potatoes supplied by us for the chipping trade are given a standard fry test to determine their fry quality and suitability for chips. The test generally consists of six potatoes (tubers) being peeled, at this stage any damage our bruising under the skin becomes apparent and is noted; then the peeled potatoes are made into regular sized chips. They are then placed into a large thermostatically controlled deep fat fryer filled with ground nut oil preheated to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, for a timed six minutes. After this time the chips are lifted from the fryer and assessed for fry colour and texture. The fry colour is based on 0 to 3, where 0 is a white fry to 3 which is a very dark poor fry. The texture is assessed to see if they are soggy, that is limp and absorbed oil, or hard, and many variations in between. Fianna are prone to be quite hard after cooking and not always acceptable to high quality chip shops, although the Fianna fry colour is usually quite white.
Seed Potatoes
The main varieties of Seed Potatoes sold by our company are Maris Piper and Fianna. We usually purchase Super Elite seed where available and mainly from two or three regular grower/suppliers in Scotland. However, due to the variable quality of Scotch Fianna seed we tend to purchase this variety from Holland.
Our seed sales are mainly to local farmers but we also supply a few small retail outlets with small quantities of early varieties of seed, e.g. Epicure and Arran Pilot. Seed normally starts to arrive from Scotland from late November to mid March.
Quite a lot of the seed supplied in December/January are 'chitted',which means that they are artificially forced to form short shoots by the use of heat and light. This helps them to establish themselves once they are planted.
Fertilizer
We sell mainly Norsk Hydro fertilizers but other types are available. The product may be stored at our Ely Road store or delivered direct to their farm. The main grade of fertilizer sold by us is Maincrop Potato (14.14.21.) and Extran which is Straight Nitrogen. The fertilizer is now mainly supplied in 500kg bags but palletised 50kg bags are available but at a premium.
Potato Sacks and Onion Nets.
We sell potato sacks of various styles; they are available as 2 or 3 ply, natural brown or bleached white, with any colour print on them, of course the price is variable depending on what specifications are required. Most sacks are of a standard size but they may be made longer if required which is often the case for automatic stitching machines. We are able to supply sacks with any print design (we offer a design service) on them - specially printed sacks need to be for a minimum quantity of 5000. Several different styles of sack are always held in stock. Reels of stitching cotton are also available.
We also supply 25kg and 12.5kg Onion Nets branded and plain, the minimum quantity for these is 500 and again the price is variable. Rolls of pallet wrap are kept in stock.
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Grading
Our grading station is situated at the rear of our yard at 14 Ely Road. Little Downham. We have a Tong grader which is capable of dealing with about 12 tonnes at hour. We are able at any one time to grade into three different sizes, we mainly grade into under 35mm, 35mm - 45mm, and over 45mm. but we may vary this to customers wishes. We mainly grade into 25kg paper sacks which are stitched after filling, but we are able to pack into other weighs or into 1 tonne wooden boxes. The whole system is quite versatile to cope with any special demands placed upon us by our customers. We grade about 100 acres of Maris Piper grown on our subsidiary company, G.A.Hobbs & Sons (Farms) Ltd, most of these are dealt with between August and October.
We offer a grading service to farmers or other merchants; this may be only the grading or we may also market the potatoes. Our own branded sacks are usually used if we market the potatoes but the farmers or merchants sacks may be used if required. There is at present a standard charge of £20 per tonne including the paper sacks.
