East Malling Research was in trouble before it revealed it had been taken over last month.

Two years ago, the centre for crop studies was saved from a £2.4 million loss thanks to a £2m grant from its charitable backer, the East Malling Trust. It still lost nearly £375,000.

Last year, as costs spiralled, it revealed losses of £1.5m and had just £4,691 in the bank heading into the 2015 financial year.

In January, directors expressed concerns that unless a partnership could be established “the likely outcome is that EMR will be placed into administration”.

Then the centre, which employs about 85 people, many of which are highly-skilled scientists, was saved in a takeover by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) for an undisclosed sum.

Its Cambridge-based new owner, an expert in research for crops like wheat, barley and rape, aims to combine East Malling’s world-renowned research in soft fruits to create a major new centre for applied crop science and innovation.

“We have bought the business in order to grow it,” said David Neill, chief operating officer at NIAB who has been installed as managing director of East Malling Research, which will become a subsidiary of NIAB known as NIAB EMR.

“NIAB is in the same field of science but with different plants. Our expertise with cells complements their expertise in cells but with different crops.

“We are looking to exploit this opportunity to run bigger projects using a similar scale site but across more crops because the big challenges are similar.”

NIAB has been active in the merger and acquisitions market in recent years, also taking over TAG and CUF.

It has profited from a fundamental change in the scientific research industry, as funders have looked for more bang for their buck.

As it aims to grow its income to £40m by 2025, Mr Neill said he does not believe the takeover of East Malling Research will be the last deal they do.

“Fundamentally, East Malling Research lacked scale,” said Mr Neill. “Like any other business, if you have an HR department and financial department that adds employees.

“Also bringing two businesses together is more attractive to funders, most of which is government research funding.

“They want to see maximum impact for every £1 they spend and if you purely focus on fruit, it is not so easy to demonstrate that.

“It’s basic economics. I don’t think their situation is unique. A lot of charitable businesses are run with very tight margins. We can offer economies of scale.”

The acquisition of East Malling Research gives NIAB entry into the top fruit market of berries, apples and pears. It also gives it access to a strong funding pool.

Before 2015, when income at East Malling Research fell to £3.4m, the centre had increased its financial backing each year since 2011.

“Fruit is a really important crop with resilient funding for research,” said Mr Neill.

“Other research areas have suffered but we feel there are opportunities providing our science is good enough to continue their growth in income.”

Mr Neill admits the opportunity to buy East Malling Research only arose because it was struggling.

He said: “We do not generate sufficient funds to buy a highly-profitable research institute because we are a not-for-profit company.

“We have always made a profit but we are not generating huge profits. That is not what we are there to do.”

He also admitted the number of jobs will dip over the next year as the business goes “through a reorganisation process” but said the aim is to be employing more people within three years.

“Obviously we need to achieve cost savings but we can also generate savings to invest in new posts where we think there is a growth opportunity.”

How will he ensure research at East Malling does not fall into financial difficulties again?

“There are no plans to sell up and move somewhere else. We are very much focussed on East Malling..." - David Neill, NIAB EMR

“Some of the senior people who were at East Malling Research have left,” he said. “Those posts have been taken up by people like me.”

A horticultural and agricultural research centre has been based at East Malling since 1913.

East Malling Research was established by the fruit-growing sector to address the challenges faced by farmers and has since discovered wide-ranging advances which have shaped the way produce is grown and supplied to consumers.

For every £1 spent at the research centre at least another £7.50 has been returned to the UK economy according to a report by Brookdale Consulting in 2014.

Mr Neill said: “The ethos is similar to NIAB.

“People who work in research have got to make a living but it is not all about the money.

“For them, it is about doing what they are interested in and their passion.

“They are a good group of people who have been through a tough time.

“I’m very conscious of that and my key objective is to give them the confidence that we have a plan for the long term.

“What will change is more people in the sector will work alongside us.

"Bringing two businesses together is more attractive to funders, most of which is government research funding..." - David Neill, NIAB EMR

“At Cambridge we work with a lot of small businesses who are on the site for two to three months linked to a project and then they go away.

“We need to make East Malling a place where businesses want to come and work with us to learn new skills to do research and then apply them to their own business.

“A lot of government funding is about integration with the commercial sector. It’s all about economic impact and employment growth.”

The East Malling Trust, which is still the landlord of the centre, “continues to offer support in many ways,” said Mr Neill.

One of his objectives is to work out a strategy for the estate “to work out what we need to enable us to grow”. This would not rule out selling some of the site.

“We are going to look at everything,” said Mr Neill. “We will not necessarily sell but if we are going to have a really good campus, able to take some research to market, then we will need new facilities and will have to work out how to do that.

“There are no plans to sell up and move somewhere else. We are very much focussed on East Malling.

“It’s a fantastic site to do what we are doing. A significant amount of fruit is grown in the area.

“If you look at a 20-mile radius, about 70% to 80% of UK growers are within that. There is a huge concentration of business and expertise in the area.

“It’s also really useful that good land is there so we can do trials for fruit and also for some of our cereals.

“The land is key. There aren’t many places linking science parks with farmland and plenty of room for trials.”