An ambitious reseller is planning to exploit the time-saving properties of AI to set up its own staff-run farm.
Talking exclusively to IT Channel Oxygen, Commercial MD Simone Hindmarch said the Cheltenham-based outfit has already begun hunting for land to support its vision, which would see staff regularly mucking in during the working week.
The move follows its decision to create a foundation for young adults in 2015, which Hindmarch now characterises as “the most important part of our business”.
“We’ve always gone out there and done things before anybody else, where people thought ‘this is a bit crazy’,” she said.
“The farm is that next thing.”
Betting the farm
Ranked 72nd in Oxygen 250, Commercial’s offering spans 12 areas including cloud & datacentre, cybersecurity, modern workplace, green and smart technology, corporate print, supplies and PPE.
The idea for an employee-run farm first came to former Commonwealth Games swimming gold medalist Hindmarch during lockdown.
“It was a little light in my brain,” she said.
“I watched a program called ‘The Biggest Little Farm’. I was sat there thinking ‘if we can become more efficient, we can use that time to become more purposeful in life’. This was obviously in a period where people had the opportunity to be outside and appreciate nature a bit more.”
The idea gathered impetus last September when Commercial set a new goal to break £100m revenues – a barrier Hindmarch predicts it will breach in its current year ending 30 June 2025.
“It wasn’t just about becoming £100m. We needed to think beyond that and build a springboard to be a £200m company, and indeed a £1bn company,” Hindmarch said.
“There were seven things I asked the business to think about. And the final part was me talking about this time I’d had in Mexico [during lockdown].
“Currently, everybody gets a half-day flexitime each month to go and do whatever they want. What if you were to move that on a stage further?
“When you have a united team who are purpose driven, it isn’t necessarily being sat at a desk doing what they always do that brings them together. Those binding moments quite often happen outside of the workplace. So it makes sense to do something that brings us together as a community.”
Fruitful work?
Nine years after its launch, the Commercial Foundation supports around 50 young adults who have previously experienced barriers to work or education annually, training them in areas such as digital print.
“It’s the most important part of our business. It draws people to work with us and we couldn’t imagine the business without it,” Hindmarch said.
Commerical’s latest brainwave would not be the first time an IT provider has ventured into the territory of farming or rewilding, with distributor Simms recently buying a 30-acre field near its HQ.
Although Commerial’s plans are still in their infancy, Hindmarch currently envisages a Riverford-style organic fruit and veg farm staffed by employees for as many as two days each month.
“As soon as you stand up and say something as a leader, people start to come to you and tell you they would absolutely love to do it,” Hindmarch said.
“There are 15 people at Commercial who grow their own on a very small basis and would be all over it if Commercial did it. You might work 12 days on the farm a year – we haven’t figured that bit out.”
The AI-sustainability debate has often focused on whether the former is incompatible with the latter.
But the advent of time-saving workplace AI tools such as Microsoft Copilot has made Commerical’s vision of allowing its staff to contribute to a community-driven sustainability project more achievable, Hindmarch claimed.
“We’re putting things like Copilot into the workplace and everyone’s saying ‘that used to take me a day, and now it takes two hours’,” she said.
“If we can do the other six things I was asking the business to do, there should be some space for us all to work on a farm.
“We need to keep upping our game. If you’re engaged at an emotional level, the turbo energy it releases into projects at work – there isn’t anything like it.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
