For the first time in its 24-year history the award for services to the poultry industry has gone to a competitor, with Mr Hignett in his final year before retiring as managing director of Hy-Line UK as well as being the founder of the Central Egg Agency.

Mr Hignett received the silver salver from Neil Leeming, managing director of Tom Barron, at the ISABROWN dinner on the eve of the Egg and Poultry Industry Conference at Blackpool.

In announcing the winner, David Tromans of Deans Foods, described Mr Hignett “a great character and a huge supporter of the UK egg industry.”

It was as a Nuffield scholar to the USA that he saw the American egg clearing house that became a model for the Central Egg Agency which he developed in the UK. And then for the past 11 years he has been with Hy-Line leading their UK team and constructing Europe’s most modern pullet hatchery.

Mr Tromans recalled how Mr Hignett had made a success of his decision to choose a career in poultry rather than enter his family’s butchery business in Shropshire, building an egg production and farm shop enterprise in the West Midlands and also serving as regional chairman of the Agricultural Training Board.

Looking to next year, Mr Leeming announced that for the 25th silver anniversary award the event would be moving to the new EPIC conference venue at the Forest of Arden, near Coventry.

ThePoultrySite News Desk