FARMA Champions Show the Way

Over the two days, the attendees were bombarded with information, advice and the chance to question the owners, managers and staff at the host businesses.

Here, two attendees share their experiences.

DAY 1: Doddington Farm Shop & Restaurant, Lincolnshire

Fred Duncannon of Stansted Park Farm Shop
On arrival at Doddington Hall you are greeted by a wall; it’s a fantastic statement of intent – local, seasonal, with veg boxes available to pick up and a large crate of pumpkins. At the far end of the shop you walk into the café (80 covers) which is light and airy and overlooking a courtyard with outside seating for a further 100. The restaurant was separated from the café via a sliding door that could seat an additional 66.

The chefs who ran the café and restaurant also cooked for the on-site weddings and events. With a wedding every weekend from January to November and Christmas parties for November and December, the events seemed the profit driver that ensured the restaurant was fully viable and contributed to the success of making Doddington a destination.

During our visit we had a tour of the kitchen garden, a huge walled garden that provided produce all year round and then saw the grazing red Lincoln beef herd. We also had a tour of the main kitchen which was compact considering they could provide over 400 covers per day. The advice was to get a chef to design your kitchen layout while getting advice from EHO regarding separation, then to make sure you have space for additional equipment, however don’t buy that equipment until you know you need it.

Doddington Hall relied on young staff from the local villages. They had 24 front of house, three pot wash and eight in the kitchen. New staff were given a ‘trainee’ badge to wear and then shadowed a full time member of staff for a week, this was then followed with one hour of intensive training. Doddington aimed to nurture young locals through the training, as they needed to retain and look after their staff.

Overall it was an extremely informative day that included an excellent burger and a pint of Doddington Ale for lunch. All the staff could not have been more open and helpful, and it was clear that the staff were passionate about Doddington and that they were the driving force behind its success.

DAY 2: Welbeck Farm Shop: Nottinghamshire

Rob Waitt of The Stables Farm Shop, Café & Farm Park
Our management team has been truly inspired by this event! We have re-evaluated the vision and values of our business and begun re-training all our staff to ensure we provide exceptional customer service. One of the main themes of this event is that customer service needs to one of our main points of difference when competing with the supermarkets.

For me this event massively over delivered! We met the owner and all the managers who spoke honestly and candidly about their business and shared all their figures too. This gave us all a brilliant insight into how a successful farm shop and butchery operates. Even with the rain we loved being able to visit the dairy, game department and meet the pigs in the walled garden. 

Also much to everyone’s surprise we were allowed behind the scenes for a tour of their Artisan Cookery School which was really fascinating.

As with all FARMA events, the drinks at the bar afterwards, where everyone shares ideas, was so valuable, and hearing that everyone else is going through the same difficulties is very therapeutic.