A forestry and land management contractor has opened a new headquarters and made senior management appointments as it positions itself for a larger share of the growing market for peatland restoration, flood prevention and conservation work in Wales.
Cwm Agricultural Ltd, now in its 19th year of trading, has appointed Neil Maycock as Sales and Operations Manager and Cameron Maycock as Contracts Manager. The appointments coincide with a move to new offices in Aberdare, a rebrand and the launch of a new website.
The company currently employs nine full time staff alongside around a dozen regular contractors, and says it hopes to double the size of its team within two years if it can secure further contracts and widen its geographical reach.
The business was founded by managing director Simon Cook and has built its work delivering forestry, environmental land management and conservation contracts across Mid and South Wales. Its clients include Natural Resources Wales, national park authorities, local councils, private estates and conservation organisations. Past work ranges from clearing dangerous trees in woodland managed by Natural Resources Wales and restoring degraded upland peatland, to building drainage that reduces flood risk to communities and controlling invasive species on protected sites.
The two appointments are intended to give the company dedicated commercial and contractual capacity for the first time. As Sales and Operations Manager, Neil Maycock is responsible for developing new client relationships and ensuring the work behind each contract is planned and resourced. Cameron Maycock, as Contracts Manager, oversees compliance and delivery on larger and more complex programmes, including framework contracts and publicly funded conservation schemes.
“For most of our 19 years we have let the work speak for itself,” said Neil Maycock.
“We have grown by doing the job properly and being asked back. What has changed is that we now have management in place so we can take on bigger programmes without losing the standards that got us here. The move to Aberdare gives us a proper base to coordinate that work.”
Maycock said demand for the company’s services was rising.
“There is more publicly funded work coming forward for peatland, flood prevention and habitat creation. The challenge for the bodies commissioning that work is finding contractors who can operate on sensitive upland and protected sites and meet the standards the funding requires. That is the gap we are building the business to fill.”
The timing reflects a period of increased public investment in land management. Natural Resources Wales, through the National Peatland Action Programme and Welsh Government funding, has set out plans to roughly triple the rate of peatland restoration in Wales, with a
target of 1,800 hectares a year by 2030. Local authorities across the Valleys and rural Wales continue to manage extensive woodland and countryside estates under tight budgets, and water companies are funding catchment and natural flood management measures. Across the
border in England, the requirement for Biodiversity Net Gain on most new developments, in force since February 2024, is creating additional demand for habitat creation that contractors in the border counties are placed to serve.
For a business that started in Cwmaman, the new Aberdare headquarters keeps the company in Rhondda Cynon Taf while giving it room to grow. Cwm Agricultural is one of a number of specialist rural businesses operating from the Cynon Valley, a part of Wales where skilled outdoor and land based employment remains valuable to the local economy.
The company said the rebrand and new website bring its full range of services together in one place for the first time, from tree surveys and selective harvesting to peatland restoration, wetland creation, natural flood management and timber dam installation.
Cwm Agricultural said it is open to discussions with commissioners across Wales and the neighbouring English counties about forestry, land management and conservation work.
