When Monmouthshire dairy farmer Richard Cleeve decided to diversify he scarcely imagined his pioneering new business would one day be manufacturing more than 100 products, employing 60 people and have an annual turnover of £6m.

Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the fact that the 'customers' for the products range from racehorses to OAPs.

Monmouth-based NAF (Natural Animal Feeds) is the largest company of its kind in Europe, producing everything that goes in or on a horse except feed - from garlic and seaweed supplements to leg poultices and fly sprays.

While specialising in the innovative use of natural ingredients to prevent and treat equine problems and diseases, it also makes a range of products for human and canine health.

Along with its associated veterinary division, Nutritional Laboratories (which produces nutraceuticals for the veterinary industry), NAF has a world-wide customer-base.

Richard Cleeve, a former High Sheriff of Gwent, said: "I was milking 150 dairy cows but new quotas were going to mean that I had to reduce the herd so I began to think about diversifying. "I've always had an interest in horses - my father was in the British showjumping team before the war and was an instructor at the army equitation school at Weeden in Leicestershire. I also had two uncles who were members of the Coaching Club. "From 1982 onwards I started making a few equine products on the farm. One of them called Hygrass (a vacuum-packed dustfree hay for horses) was very successful and I concentrated on that for the first few years after I gave up farming. "Eventually I realised that there was more potential in feed supplements. It was just the right time to get into natural products."

In 1989 quite by chance Richard met a vet called Nick Larkins, based in Spain, who is a world expert on equine nutrition. "It's extremely unusual for a vet to specialise in that field. With him we have developed a lot of our key products. "The first was Thrive - a food supplement which calms horses by adjusting the acidity in their digestive system. "We were also the first in Europe to introduce MSM (methyl sulphonyl methane) - a natural anti-inflammatory. MSM actually restores tissue rather than just killing the pain, particularly in joints. "We developed a similar product for humans. When The Daily Telegraph wrote an article about it we received 60,000 calls! In fact we had to employ a call centre to handle them. "Everything we produce is natural. We make a lot of use of Indian and Chinese herbs such as ginseng and echinacea. Plant and natural extracts work because they contain key chemical compounds which have a direct effect on one or more systems in the body."

The company's research and development is carried out by a veterinary team headed by Nick Larkins and a nutritionist team led by Kate Jones.

NAF's equine products include nutritional supplements for joints and soundness, hooves and skin, respiratory health, digestion and behaviour, support of the immune system, the veteran horse and the performance horse plus broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplements and a range of care and first aid applications.

Products like the fly repellent 'NAF OFF' have become as familiar to children in the Pony Club as to top competition riders.

The human product range, sold mainly in health food shops, is marketed under the NutriLabs brand. It includes the MSM formulas for joints as well as an innovative range of herbal products. There are also treatments for joint, skin and digestion problems in dogs and a tincture to promote good health in chickens.

"Twenty per cent of our business is exports - the main customers being Europe (particularly Germany, Holland and Belgium), the Americas and the Middle East. "We still manufacture on the farm but we eventually had to move the packing and despatching to a factory site in Monmouth because we needed the extra space. We now have 50 staff in Monmouth and 10 reps on the road so we're a big local employer. "Obviously I am hoping the business will continue to grow. In two years we expect to be using 50,000 sq ft of buildings."

Along the way the company has established the Trust for the Promotion of Therapeutic Nutrition - through which a panel of independent vets and animal nutritionists promote nutritional therapy as a tool for the improvement of animal health.

Richard's decision to diversify 20 years ago wasn't only good news for him, it seems, but for countless thousands of horses, dogs and humans as well! "I enjoyed farming, but running this business is great fun and far more exciting," he said.

Annabel Hughes.