The former managing director of pig breeding and production company Agricultural Contract and Marketing Company (ACMC) has purchased a large portion of ACMC’s assets and has formed a new company known as Pure Pig Genetics Ltd. The new company, founded by Matthew Curtis, will be headquartered at Beeford, East Yorkshire, U.K.
ACMC, which has experienced its share of financial difficulties in recent months, went into administration on April 27.
Pure Pig Genetics, according to a report from Farmers Weekly, purchased ACMC’s Oakwood nucleus herd at Burton Agnes, and its Gene Bank Stud artificial insemination operation. The new company has also taken over worldwide franchise contracts as well as the ACMC high health multiplication contracts in the U.K.
Also included in the purchase are ACMC’s breed genetic rights, brand names and intellectual property, its PigCom herd management system and the genetic evaluation program.
The new pig business so far employs eight former members of the ACMC staff. Geneticist Ed Sutcliffe is working as an independent consultant for Pure Pig Genetics.
Curtis said that Pure Pig Genetics will have a European-based herd of 600 to 700 sows in the U.K. and Spain.
ACMC, according to its website, was founded in 1990 and is a family-owned company.
