Investment: £10k-£20k
Franchise Focus
provenance. Then the recession came and people’s lives became dominated by financial pressures with good food becoming of lesser importance. The horsemeat scandal brought the issue of ethical supply chains and provable provenance back to the table again. “These things, combined with a good summer, the improvement in the wider economy and the fact that franchisees are working harder than ever to capitalise on the favourable conditions have all contributed to Riverford’s sterling performance this year.” However, these aren’t all of the
reasons for the sudden growth spurt and Rob is keen to point out that fresh initiatives implemented directly by head office are also playing a big part. “We’ve introduced new products.
Riverford has a new range of picnic lines made in its own kitchen, which is proving very popular; hummus and salsa, pies and pasties, things like that. And earlier this year we developed our new ‘combo box’, which is a combination of the meat and veg customers want each week, which has also become a big seller for us. Before the combo box, our meat deliveries were a little inflexible, and geared toward people who wanted to buy in bulk. When we realised those buyers were in the minority, we knew we had to tweak the model. The new combo box is far more accessible, it’s weekly for a start, and more people are buying meat from us because of it. And now it’s much easier for franchisees to up-sell from a veg box to a combo box. The combo box keeps customers happy and it puts more on the franchisee’s bottom line. “In addition to these things, we’ve brushed up on our marketing, refining the things that work and bringing in new things that we haven’t tried before. We’re using
lots of search engine optimisation and pay- per-click to drive traffic to Riverford’s main website, and we’ve intensified our focus on both lead generation and reactivation. We’ve got a dedicated outbound sales team to call potential customers and reconnect with those that have lapsed. There are dozens of reasons people drop out of having a regular box delivered; perhaps they’ve moved home, or gone abroad and come back, or their circumstances have changed (they’ve changed jobs or had children for example), and so there will always be a percentage of lapsed customers who are delighted to hear from us, and eager to take up the opportunity of having a regular delivery again. It’s vitally important to keep customers in the loop,
especially the ones who appear to be drifting away.”
And what of the franchisees, how do they contribute to increasing customer numbers? “Between the 70-plus franchisees that make up the network, they visit around a thousand shows each year, which is an incredible figure. Their efforts at shows alone generate roughly a quarter of Riverford’s new customers each year. They’re the ones generating interest and getting new orders, and they’re getting better at it each year. “A combination of central and franchise activity combined with an improving market has fuelled fantastic new customer numbers. Since January, the business generated 40 per cent more new customers than last year. We are now taking on 50 per cent more new customers a week, every week. Deliveries at group level are up 8.5 per cent so far this year, and that’s very good. Combined with the 4.5 per cent increase in general customer spend retail sales are up 13 per cent since May. It’s a healthy picture for all involved with the brand, and a great time for people thinking about joining Riverford to explore the opportunity. I don’t think there’s been a better time to become a Riverford franchisee than right now.” n
RIVERFORD Rob Haward
WEBSITE:
www.riverford.co.uk/franchise EMAIL:
franchise@riverford.co.uk PHONE: 01803 762 015 CLASSIFICATION: Organic food delivery
October 2013 |
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