FARMA Conference 2015

The conference also saw awards be presented to businesses and individuals for their work within the sector.

Michael Mack of FARMA said, “The conference went really well and we’ve had lots of very positive feedback from our members. The intimate feeling of the event and the speakers were very well received – the futurologist in particular blew their minds about where things may be heading in the future, and they gained a lot of confidence from Philip Blanc’s talk on negotiation.

“The three tours went very well, and everyone came back buzzing with inspiration after seeing how top-class farm shop businesses are run. People got a lot out of seeing them for a management point of view.

“Parkside Farm PDO won our Retail Champion award due to the consistent high quality of everything they do. It’s not a shop, but they focus on what they do well and are always the best they can be – that’s what stood out against the competition.”

Katherine Brown of Roots Farm Shop said, “We loved the intimate feel of the conference this year, with its mix of new entrants, those wanting to grow and star veterans of the industry. We were made to feel very welcome by the Farma team and particularly liked that we felt our contributions to discussion was of genuine value to those we spoke to, whether on a one to one basis or by asking a questions to the speakers during the conference.

“We had a great contingency from Yorkshire and enjoyed getting to know them better, and now see the importance of the local network meetings that we had been missing. There is so much help and support in your own county, as business owners time is precious but if you don’t put time into networking with the right people you are holding your business back on valuable insight that can take your business to the next level.”