Encouraging New Ventures
Posted by Steve Croot on
Croots Farm Shop, Derbyshire has just hosted a visit from 50 people who either run a farm shop or are planning to open one, as part of the annual FARMA (National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association) conference. We were one of several venues asked by the event organisers to throw open our doors, and I was delighted to show the visitors around the farm shop and café.
The popularity of the trip is a good indication that there’s still strong interest in launching farm shops, delis and similar ventures – and hopefully reflects the continuing demand for high quality food and drink.
Our promotions for Farmhouse Breakfast Week, and the launch of our new Croots Breakfast Banger, helped bring in the customers after a couple of quiet weeks caused by the snow and ice at the start of the year. The all-day breakfasts proved particularly popular. We even had people coming in for all-day breakfasts late in the afternoon. Our sausages have become our most sought-after product. We achieved a couple of silvers and a bronze in the BPEX Midlands tasting heat, taking our range of award-winning sausages to a total of four.
It's a bit of an aside, but I also thought I'd mention the fact that we've taken the plunge recently and invested in some new software which should help us tremendously. It’s become a big task to keep things running smoothly on the stock control front, so this will make life easier.
Finally - more good news – Croots has been shortlisted for the final three of the Derbyshire Business Awards 'Most Promising New Business' category for 2010.
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