A super-council will be the best option for North Yorkshire – James Lambert

He had spotted an opportunity to buy an old Victorian dairy in North Yorkshire and encouraged me to join his new company.

At the time I was working as a salesman in the cattle-breeding business. It was enormous fun but the market was tough and the outlook bleak. I took the leap with Jonny and staked my £40,000 savings on some second-hand ice cream making equipment.

Off we went, trying our best to get really good at making two-litre tubs of ice cream. We got our big break a couple of years later with Ken Morrison and agreed a deal to supply his growing supermarket chain with own-label ice cream.

As Morrisons expanded, so did we. In those early years, ours was a cottage industry, made up of local creameries with old-fashioned equipment. We could see it was a case of eat or be eaten and resolved to take over these ageing ice cream factories, invest in the latest manufacturing processes and consolidate the sector.

From our home in North Yorkshire, we bought a series of businesses including Windsor Creameries, Treats in Leeds and Allied Frozen Foods to become the UK’s largest ice cream manufacturer. We looked over to the Continent and with the backing of our investors acquired the leading ice cream businesses of France, Germany and Italy.

In 2016, R&R Ice Cream joined forces with Nestle to create Froneri, one of the world’s biggest ice cream makers. It still has its headquarters at Leeming Bar and is North Yorkshire’s most valuable company, with more than 10,000 employees across the world.

After 28 years as co-founder and chief executive, I stepped down from R&R Ice Cream to pursue new interests. I remain immensely proud of everything we achieved with our business.

I grew up in North Yorkshire and consider myself very lucky to have been able to pursue my career in my home county, which in my unashamedly biased opinion is the most beautiful place in the world.

Like everywhere, North Yorkshire has taken a hit from the pandemic, but we have many advantages that will help us to adapt to the ever-changing economy and make the most of new opportunities as they emerge.

That’s why I am lending my support to North Yorkshire County Council’s plans for a new single tier of local government in North Yorkshire. It will unlock further central government investment in infrastructure and deliver the services and opportunities to optimise our economic growth.

I know from experience that when you merge similar organisations together, you share the best ideas, use the best people, deliver more innovation in your products and services and at the same time, buy your inputs at the lowest costs. You also remove duplication, making life easier for the consumer.

The City of York and North Yorkshire County Council have agreed a devolution deal to take control of funds and powers from central government to accelerate the recovery from the pandemic and create new growth opportunities for businesses.

They have approved plans to invest £540m in fibre connectivity, £390m in transport links, £290m in market town centres, £215m in the bio-economy, £95m on housing, £50m on green energy and £10m in skills across the county over the coming years. The new single council proposals will also save significantly more than £25m a year in bureaucracy costs by scrapping the current two-tier structure of local government which has seven district councils and a county council.

This has to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and should be seized without delay. A watered-down version of devolution with the status quo intact would simply not do. I urge business leaders to show their support by writing to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Ministers should know that North Yorkshire has international strengths in the bio-economy, technology, manufacturing and tourism sectors. With the right backing, our companies can flourish and grow, even in the most challenging of times.

In business, there is no guarantee of success, but as we showed with Richmond Ice Cream, if you spot an opportunity to get really good at something and have the ambition and drive to succeed, there is no limit to what you can achieve.

James Lambert OBE is chairman of Inspired Pet Nutrition, the Thirsk-based manufacturer of the Wagg and Harringtons pet foods, and chairman of Burton’s Biscuits, owner of some of Britain’s best-loved biscuit brands.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson