❤ LOVE LOCAL ❤
EVERSFIELD ORGANIC
Eversfi eld Organic is a true family business that has managed to retain traditional farming methods while selling purely online and mak- ing the most of modern day technology. Anna, who we spoke to, manages the marketing and website, her brother Hamish looks after the farm side of operations and their father Mark oversees everything.
The farm in Okehampton - where a lot of the meat is reared and all of it is hung, butchered and packaged - was set up in 2000 and achieved organic status in 2004. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength seeing increased sales of 400 per cent year-on-year since 2011. All the meat on offer is organic and pasture
fed – there are no grains or cereal in sight – and any other farmers who supply meat for
their meat boxes must meet strict criteria. When asked why they chose to sell online instead of from a physical shop Anna ex- plained that their location had a lot to do with it. Being in the middle of Dartmoor means that many people may never visit them and they wanted to make their meat boxes available to all. Selling online also removes the overheads associated with a shop. Asked about the benefi ts of buying online,
Anna says that it is quick, effi cient and allows you to shop in your own time. Plus, “more information is available about products,” she adds, compared to a shop where there may just be a small label. While Anna admits that shopping online does mean you lose cus- tomer contact, social media has made a huge difference and their customer base is broad. For those worried about freshness, the packaging used by Eversfi eld Organic can
SOMERSET LOCAL
FOOD DIRECT Somerset Local Food Direct allows shoppers to buy online from local suppliers and get it all delivered to their door. We asked manager Roger White to give us the lowdown.
Can you give us a bit of background about Somerset Local Food Direct? The Company was born out of Somerset Farmers’ Markets Ltd, which began in 1999. The success of the markets led us to believe that they should be supplemented by a home delivery service using produce from local suppliers. So Somerset Local Food Direct began in 2003 with a small distribution
warehouse in Glastonbury where we learned all the skills needed to get fresh produce from lots of small to medium size producers to the fi nal customer in as effi cient manner as we could.
How has your customer base grown over the years? Customer numbers grew well in the fi rst fi ve years. There was little competition and the agricultural tragedies of foot and mouth disease and BSE led customers to consider carefully where their food was coming from and how it was produced. There was a grow- ing awareness, which continues today, that what we choose to eat, how it is produced and where we buy it from has a profound ef-
fect on agriculture, landscape, environment, local economy and our health. The growth of supermarket delivery schemes and the recession have made us keener to promote the unique service we have to offer and food delivery is becoming a normal part of people’s shopping habit.
What are the benefi ts to customers of buying online? The fi rst benefi t is knowing where the food comes from. If you click on any product on the web site you will see who has supplied it. You will see the address of the supplier and a description of the business and the values that drive them. Since we do not have a conventional retail
outlet, we do not need surplus packaging, just that required to keep the food in perfect condition for delivery. Sourcing from local producers ensures we do not consume more food miles than neces-
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