Farm Shop or Not?

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

• Becoming a B Corp
• Top trend predictions for Christmas 2021
• Self-sacrifice: The importance of building a leadership legacy centred on others
• Undercover Boss
• Can/should bosses really be close friends with their staff?

When is a farm shop not a farm shop, that is the question!

Probably when it is run by Waitrose, or come to that Dobbies (Tesco’s) or several other large companies.  The Waitrose new farm shop is actually built on some of their own farmed land, but I wonder how much of the produce for sale will be from that farm itself.  I heard this morning from a customer that they have been ringing the suppliers of the local delis trying to source the same products, presumably to try and knock them out of business.

That will never happen for two main reasons.  Firstly: customer loyalty.  Supermarkets don’t understand customer loyalty that comes through relationship.  Yes they have so-called “loyalty cards”, but as soon as something better comes along from another chain, they will be off.  These loyalty cards aren’t really anything to do with true loyalty – they are just money off cards.  True loyalty comes through relationship with the shop owner or manager and the impartation of expertise and knowledge that they are able to give.

Secondly, any consumer with half a brain cell can see that the supermarkets are simply jumping on the farm shop bandwagon, and that putting a store in a field or calling a food hall in a garden centre a farm shop is simply marketing bluster.  Consumers want real food bought from a real farm served by real people with real knowledge.  Nothing wrong with putting food halls in garden centres. Indeed some of them also own farms and sell their own meat and veg, but if there is no produce coming from the farm, surely it is breaking all sorts of trade descriptions rules to call it a farm shop?

The horsemeat scandal certainly seems to be having a great knock-on effect for independent retailers.  Many of our customers have had a great start to the year due to this and a successful Christmas, and as a result, so have we?  In fact one week in early February was larger than our average pre-Christmas week.  Quite astonishing as February is normally our quietest month of the year.  It has given us the confidence to go for further growth this year and we have already taken on three more full-time members of staff in 2013.  Long may it continue!

Next stop for me – Los Angeles to a show called Expo West, swiftly followed by IFE in London – hope to see you there.