Credit: Sarah Chambers, EADT.
Suffolk Agricultural Association (SAA) executive director Chris Bushby was just 32 years old when he took over the
reins at the august body, which dates back to the 1830s. This week he announced he was stepping down after 30
years with the organisation, including 20 in charge. He spoke to Sarah Chambers about his SAA career and the
many highs, and rare lows, in running the organisation behind the county’s biggest and most prestigious event.
One of Chris Bushby’s favourite moments during the Suffolk Show is early morning.
In that quiet few hours of anticipation at Trinity Park in Ipswich, before the gates open and the crowds pour in,
proud farmers can be seen washing and grooming their prize cattle in the early morning light, and heavy horse
contestants are out exercising the powerful animals before their big moment in the limelight.
“That first thing when there are no public here and people just starting to arrive on the trade stands is quite
special,” he admits.
The annual county extravaganza, which brings together an army of farmers and around 85,000 members of the
public, is the county’s biggest annual event by far, and a showcase for its expertise in growing food for a hungry
nation, as well as a vast social networking canvas where deals are done, ice creams consumed and equine and
farming trophies fiercely fought over.
Another moment which never fails to lift Chris’s spirits is a walk down the avenues when the show is in full flow
and people are at their most sociable and outgoing. Eat Street and other innovations have taken the show to new
cultural heights by making that vital link between top quality food and drink and the farming exhibitions and
livestock contests taking place elsewhere on the showground.
On show days, Chris arrives at the 300 acre showground site at 5am. Years ago, he used to bring a sleeping bag
and bed down in the office. As he got a bit older, and moved from Stowupland to an address just a mile and a
half away from the showground, he decided to swap the hard floor for the comfort of a mattress at home.
Now aged 52, Chris took over the reins at the organisation 20 years ago as a relatively untried and untested 32year-old. Although young, he had spent 10 years building to that moment as showground manager and
‘understudy’ to John Hargreaves, his predecessor. On the day of his appointment, he recalls SAA stalwarts John
Thurlow, Derek Scott, and David Barker, along with John Hargreaves, seated in a circle in what was to become his
office. They had whittled down 200 applicants from all over the country to a shortlist of seven, including Chris. As
with his previous post, he had been put through a rigorous two-interview process. Now the wait was over, and at
the end of a painstaking selection process, he was told the post was his.
“It was like the room closed in on me. I’ll never forget that feeling,” he says.
Despite having the pick of candidates, the SAA went with the ex-Debenham High and Otley College student, who
had made an impression on them in his role as showground manager, a job which enabled him to learn the nuts
and bolts of running a successful show from the ground up.
The association had spotted and nurtured his talent, supporting him through a postgraduate degree in business
studies and an MBA.
“I was fortunate enough where all those skills have been fostered and come together through some fantastic
show directors and chairmen and senior stewards who have always wanted me to succeed. They took a big
chance because I was still seen in the industry as very young. I set my ambitions the two years before that I
wished to be considered for the position and they said: ‘Well, Chris, you need a bit more understanding of
business.’”
The new qualifications provided him with the confidence and skill set the association was seeking and a
springboard into the top job, where he was responsible for leading, developing and delivering the association’s
strategic vision.
Now, 20 years on, Chris has decided that he wants to look for new challenges outside the organisation which has
been his home for three decades.
“I have to say it has been tough coming to the decision. I have counted in the last 30 years coming to work every
day as a true privilege,” he says.
It will be a wrench, but it was a move he had been considering since before Christmas of last year, he explains.
“It just felt it was time to look for new challenges and 30 years of service of which 20 have been leading the
agricultural association, it was coming up with the brave decision to actually know when to cut the umbilical cord,
because it’s a family and it’s a unique organisation that brings together so many in the community to put
together the county show, but all the other events as well,” he says.
Chris is proud of his legacy. When he departs, some time before Christmas, he will leave behind an organisation
with a series of events which are still going strong, the most important of which is the Suffolk Show.
SAA chairman Robert Rous said Chris had “lived and breathed” the show for 30 years. Current show director Bill
Baker paid tribute to his talents.
“Chris has a wealth of experience in the show industry and his skills in staging a first class county show are clearly
evident. He has left an indelible mark on the Suffolk Show, The Suffolk Agricultural Association, the agricultural
industry and the county of Suffolk. We shall always be grateful to him for the huge contribution that he has
made,” he said.
Born in Colchester, Chris moved to a small farm at Monk Soham at the age of seven and therefore counts himself
a Suffolk boy. He was the adopted son of two talented musicians, who also adopted two daughters. His adoptive
father was a professor of music at the Royal College in London and adoptive mother a primary school head. They
had one son, eight years Chris’s senior, but for health reasons had to adopt after their first child. Chris attended
Bedfield primary and Debenham High then, showing no sign of his parents’ musical talents but an enthusiasm for
farming, went on to Otley College. After that, he served for three years in the Coldstream Guards but viewed it
more as a chance to travel and experience new things than with any ambition to become a career soldier. He also
studied agriculture at Lincolnshire College of Agriculture, part of the De Montfort University.
As a youngster, he had enjoyed farm life, and he knew that his future lay with the farming industry, but he wasn’t
sure in what guise.
“It did mean my love for the industry was there - collecting eggs, or feeding pigs before going to school. That
gave me a feel for it. We used to have goats and I used to milk those. When you have got livestock, it’s 24-7,” he
says.
“I did two years working on farms and did a day release at what’s now Easton and Otley College doing my City
and Guilds around farming. Everything from castration of pigs through to how to wire an electrical socket. It was
real practical skills.”
Later, he would work for the Countess of Cranbrook at Great Glemham, helping out with the harvest. From there,
he went on to get a temporary post with Richard Starke of Eye, who took him on as a temporary manager to
oversee his camomile production and harvesting of parsley and chives.
It was while he was on holiday in France that his mother spotted an advertisement for a post at the SAA as
showground manager.
“She applied for me, and I had to cut my holiday short to come back for interview and after two interviews I got
the job. If I’m honest, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to be a farm manager. I didn’t
know where in the agricultural community my place was, so when I was appointed it was a breakthrough,” he
said.
It turned out to be a job which suited his natural talents. Through his experience in the army he had learnt the
importance of meticulous preparation, and he enjoyed the organisational challenges which the job presented as
well the window into new worlds which it offered.
“It suited my personality to work on the promotion of the industry rather than on the production and actually
putting on the county show and all our events is like a stage performance.”
He enjoyed the creativity involved and kept uppermost in his thoughts the need to make it a wonderful
experience, not only for show-goers, but also for the army of farmer-volunteers, made up of 300 stewards and 16
senior stewards who stage the show each year.
His job has brought him into contact with a host of Royal visitors to the show, including in his first year in charge,
the late Princess of Wales. He’s also met with Princess Alexander, the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Wessex,
Princess Margaret, the Duchess of Gloucester, and the Princess Royal.
He escorted the Queen during a portion of her 50th jubilee visit to Bury St Edmunds, and has also taken Prince
Wales and Camilla around its cathedral.
His list of achievements during his time at the SAA is a long one. Outside of work, Chris is a keen judo player and
a former chairman of Ipswich Judo Club. He’s chaired a number of bodies, including the Suffolk Tourism
Partnership and is currently vice-president of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce. He was recently awarded honorary
doctorates by both the University of East Anglia and University of Essex.
Over the years, he has enjoyed the sense of family and unity that comes with working with a large team towards
the same goal of putting on a memorable and exciting show.. He has also gained satisfaction in getting the best
out of people, he says, and counts among his attributes an interest in people and never bearing grudges.
Working in his favour, he says, is that no one wants the event, whether it be the county show, or the School Farm
and Country Fair, or the SAA’s student day, to fail.
Show directors change every three years, so over the years he has worked alongside many different association
members. They each put their own stamp on the show, he says, but also try to build on its traditions while at the
same time innovating and ensuring that its content is still relevant. The regular freshening up of the role of
running the show means that new ideas are brought in and ensures no two shows are ever the same.
“You have got to make sure they are all for the positive and don’t damage the organisation long term and I think
I have had a role like that because quite rightly the association and the show needs to be relevant and
progressive,” says Chris.
“When you get a new show director, they’ll build on previous show directors but they’ll also bring a relevance and
personality to the event. I can honestly say in 30 years I have never had a falling out or a cross word with any of
the senior volunteers or any volunteers who are here on a regular basis. We have always had strong mutual
respect, but that doesn’t mean it’s always been ‘yes’.”
The association is a charitable, not-for-profit organisation. The aim over the years has been to try to bring the
show to break-even point – which is no easy task. The show runs at a loss. It costs £1.4million to stage, and ticket
sales, sponsorship and trade stand fees have only gone so far in helping to balance the books. There are also the
vagaries of the weather to contend with, as depressingly illustrated by the disaster of the second day of the 2012
show when potentially dangerous high winds left organisers with no option but to cancel the event – at a cost of
half a million pounds.
It’s all a balancing act, admits Chris. The agricultural and educational content of the show, such as the livestock
competitions, costs money which cannot be recovered through ‘commercialising’ it, for example, he says.
“That’s making decisions, that’s recognising the emotions around those decisions but it’s also about keep
reminding yourself what the association was set up for. You can make other parts of your business work harder
for you - hence the investment into Trinity Park conference and events centre to support the charitable
community ethos,” he explains.
Whoever takes over from Chris will certainly have their job cut out. It’s a unique role, but Chris is conscious that
there are many agricultural shows that have fallen by the wayside over recent years - the Royal Show, East of
England Show and the Essex Show to name but a few.
“There’s a whole list of them that are no longer,” he says. “I think you survive if you are core to your objectives.”
He adds: “With most businesses, it’s really understanding your heritage but also really trying to understand where
you are in the present and where you really need to be in the future. That’s just best business fundamentals. I
think this association has had a great strength, in that it has always built on its heritage with an eye to the future.
For instance, Bill (Baker, the current show director) in his first year was already having meetings about 2015 show
and positive changes and things like that and also starting to think about how the show should look in five years’
time,” he says.
Chris says he wants to take a bit of time to look at what he would like to do next. It could be something to with
the voluntary sector, or education, or it could be in another arena. What he will miss when he leaves, some time
before Christmas, is the sense of fun and kinship at the SAA, and the many facets of his job of 20 years.
“That’s one thing I have always loved about the association, and it does help when things aren’t going great, is
there’s great camaraderie in the meetings, and I have not known the association to lose its sense of humour,” he
says.