New Year Part Two

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?

Well, it is the end of the financial year and the end of the business year for many

Ours was March 31st, so we are still running our end of year figures, but it has been a great year as we are 30% up on turnover. This was largely due to an investment in more staff, made a year ago, which has started to pay off. A gamble that comes off is always good!

However I am not sitting here feeling smug at all. Conditions are tough out there, and personally I have had to work harder this year than for a while to drive things forward.

Buyers are asking for deals and discounts more than ever before, and I have no problem with this as long as they are being passed onto the consumer, but sadly in some cases they are not.

We need to drive customers through our doors by offering them some deals. I probably sound like a stuck record on this point, but it’s so important to present promotions to customers that are visible before or as soon as they walk through the door, to dispel the little voice in their heads that says independent retailers are expensive.

When attending a meeting at Cobb’s Farm Shop the other day I was pleased to see that they had a fruit and veg price comparison with local supermarkets on display at the entrance to the shop. Supermarkets just aren’t that cheap on produce. Let’s shout about it!

I have had some more feedback on the JME brand this week, with some artisan producers that are committed to attending the Real Food Festival this summer appalled that Jamie Oliver’s new brand is also going to be there.

In the words of one: “If we could get our money back from the show we would cancel our stand just out of principal, but doesn’t look like they will agree to that one! I hope he doesn’t make a guest appearance – he may not receive a very friendly welcome. I guess he is blissfully unaware of the distaste he has served up.”

What I find interesting is the official response from Realfood Festivals, who admitted in an e-mail to this producer that “…many of the products that Jamie has sourced are being produced by good quality smaller producers (although not all)”.

Is he suggesting that some of the products aren’t produced by good quality producers? He also adds: “On a more cynical note, we also hope that having this range will attract more press attention, which could hopefully lead to more visitors at the event, which of course would be beneficial to everyone.” I guess he has come clean there!

Connecting the two strands of this blog, is the JME brand really going to be exciting consumers when the same or very similar products are available under the producers own brand for lower prices? Time will tell.

Have a great start to the new fiscal year!