'Our work is all about love

A deep respect for people and the planet, as well as each other, underpins life and business for ethical entrepreneur

- Geetie Singh-Watson and her husband, Guy, founder of Riverford

There is no doubt that passion drives Geetie Singh-Watson. It shines through everything, from the way she approaches business with foundations built on unwavering principles, to her respect for the rural landscape, and the way it should be managed. At least it’s there in the life she shares with her husband of 11 years, Guy Singh-Watson. ‘Well, ours is a real love story,’ she laughs, ‘but like most of the best, it didn’t have a great start.’

Geetie recalls how she first met Guy – the pioneering farmer behind Riverford and its organic vegetable box delivery scheme – in 2005, when he came to her award-winning London pub, The Duke of Cambridge, with an interest in buying it. She had founded this, the world’s first organic pub, in 1998, and in the years that followed, her venture had not only been recognised with numerous accolades, she had also received an MBE for services to the pub trade. Not surprisingly, she was protective of her enterprise. ‘I was very unsure about this man who turned up in my manor,’ she admits. ‘I thought he was cold and distant, while he says I was defensive.’

Such mutual caution was to flip dramatically in 2011 when Geetie – as Trustee of the Soil Association – visited Guy on his rural patch in Devon. ‘I saw him entirely differently,’ she recalls. ‘Here was a gentle, passionate man whose ethics, particularly around business, mirrored my own. He was – and is – just a lovely human being. By the end of that day, I was totally besotted.’