EDUCATION AND TRAINING
We’re proud to be the starting point for so many of the county’s entrepreneurs’
The King’s School is proud to be the starting point for many of Gloucestershire’s entrepreneurs. And those entrepreneurs who set out into the wide world of business after competing their studies credit their schooling for arming them with the skills and courage to give it a go. Jess Vaughan was a pupil at King’s Junior and Senior Schools between 1985 and 1999 before going on to found and run Jess’ Ladies Organic Farm Milk. Born to a King’s alumnus father Mike Vaughan, Jess and fellow King’s scholar Sophie were raised on the Hardwicke family farm their grandfather bought in 1955. After attending King’s, she read agriculture and animal science at the University of Aberystwyth before returning to the family farm to work. Jess has always had a passion for dairy farming and can remember sitting in the milking parlour watching her parents milk the herd as a toddler. It was that passion for the family business and the lessons she learned from her time at King’s that gave her the courage and confidence to take the business in a new direction. “It became apparent, in the early 2000s, that our farming ways and our small herd of ladies, with names and personalities, were not going to survive,” she said. “We needed to change something to make the business sustainable. So we did.
“By processing our own milk on-site we saw an opportunity to provide an organic milk the way nature intended, full of taste, un-homogenised, fresh and untampered with. “Simply pasteurised and on the shelf within hours. I always had an idea to bottle our own organic milk and dad was always open to my ideas - we are a great team together. “We set about converting a shed on our tenanted farm to a state-of-the-art bottling plant and to tell the story of our farm and animals through the unique brand that we created. "I’m not sure we ever dreamt what the next decade would hold. “My dad and my sister are also former King’s School pupils - we all attended the school for our entire education before going on to university. “The school taught us many things, but I feel the most valuable is that anything worth doing will be hard work, and whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve if you are prepared to work hard. “Ironically enough, I didn’t actually ever study any business subjects at King’s, my A- levels were Biology, English and Theology!” It would seem that the lesson that hard work gets results, instilled in Jess, her sister and dad while pupils at King’s, continues to bear fruit. Her latest business achievement is winning yet another Good Taste Award for their most recent product, kefir –
104 | September 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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