Gabriel Purdey
Co-Owner of Ruxstons
Setting up Ruxstons with my brother Fraser was a natural succession to my previous roles and experiences. Having grown up on a Organic Farm on Exmoor in the 1990’s, I fell in love with natural produce, as organic as possible. I set up and run a chocolate company during 2014.
For four years I travelled the UK and parts of Europe selling the bars to all sorts of Farm shops, Delis and Wholefood Shops whilst building a chocolate factory. After selling this company, my desire to stay in the food industry led me to the Island of Sicily where I worked on a vineyard making natural wine. After a brief stint at a French pudding manufacturer, I returned to my Exmoor roots and upon close discussion with my family we decided we all had a mix of skills and experience to make a farm shop work. Drop in today and see our range of products or if you are not in the area you can buy online.
Whilst I could write more in this section about my career history, maybe going into more detail on the rollercoaster ride of building a chocolate factory and the details travelling the country with the obsessive to desire to increase sales, I never really find that truly sums an individual up, I mean there are a lot of people who work long hours running a business. Here instead is a story from my childhood which shows the start of my love of agriculture and business.
When I was 6 years old I excitedly saw my older sister get a rabbit to look after, this was coupled with my other older sister having some guinea pigs. My parents always insisted on self responsibility growing up so the job of mucking out their animals and supplying them with fresh hay was left solely to them. Originally they started taking hay from the large hay bales that my parents had baled for our cattle but they hated using it as it contained the odd thistle and/or nettle. I started collecting the grass cuttings from our lawn and after allowing it to dry over several days sold it to them for 40p per sheath (our grass wasn’t cut often).
As my business expanded, possibly due to myself reminding my mother to never let my sisters miss a day of mucking out their pets, I built a small shed out of two pallets and a piece of corrugated iron as a roof to build my first office. It was propped up against the house but sadly kept falling down in the inevitable high winds of our exposed hillside farm. Not to be beaten I decided it needed some more support, so simply knocked a hole in our newly built farmhouse to wedge in some supports. Upon seeing the damage, remarkably my parents didn’t seem overly angry and after being reminded of asking for permission, my father rebuilt the wall and that was the end of my shed. The hay business was replaced with a daffodil honesty box stall but I always look back at the first indication of a business future.
To combine my passions of business, nature and fine food is a real pleasure and your support is all greatly appreciated.
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Contact
Contact Gabriel about our pantry selection, and new product purchasing
Phone: 07927 914136