Farm shop’s guiding hand

A MID-Wales beef and sheep farmer has set up a unique diversification venture – helping farmers help themselves.

With growing interest from farmers and garden centres in setting up farm shops and backed by his knowledge of the shopfit industry and organic food production, Tom Davis has developed a range of display fixtures and launched a website aimed directly at providing a guiding hand for farmers wanting to market their products direct to the public.

“Over the years, lots of farmers have had a stall at the side of the road – but these days direct selling is big business because of the competition with supermarkets and garden centre outlets – all of which are incorporating farm shops as part of their retail layouts,” he says.

“But today’s shopper still likes the rustic appeal of the traditional farm shop, being very conscious of animal welfare, food presentation and hygiene.”

His expertise in fitting and laying out farm shops has been gained as he has developed his own two-fold diversification initiatives – manufacturing display equipment for garden centres and producing organic food.

He set up Stagecraft Display Ltd some 20 years ago, first to manufacture rustic garden furniture and then expanded into providing garden centres and DIY outlets with retail display stands, while with his wife, Clare, and son, Nick, continued to farm their 700 acres at Esgairdraenllwyn, near Llandrindod Wells, in Powys.

“I had to supplement the farm income to educate four children but had always been interested in timber structures and at the time we had our own saw mill producing timber for our farm buildings,” he says.

Credit: © FARMERS GUARDIAN please contact 01772 799445.

Tom Davis with Georgina Mason, owner of the Gonalston Farm Shop, near Nottingham, at its recent official opening.

Today the saw mill is still an important part of the farm set-up but it has been transformed into a modern factory operation employing 32 people, supplying and fitting out major garden centre outlets such as Wyevale and Dobbies throughout the UK and Ireland.

A second and complementary, diversification initiative was to gain organic status for the farm in 2001 through Quality Welsh Food Certification Ltd.

The family farm now sells finished lambs to Waitrose, through the Aberystwyth-based procurement company, Livestock Marketing.

All the lambs come from a closed flock of 850 Beulah Speckled Face ewes, improved with Cheviot blood, and then put to a Texel tup.

The farm’s 55 cross-bred suckler cows are put to an Aberdeen Angus or Welsh Black bull and the stores sold direct to Lord Newborough’s Rhug and Market Drayton estates for finishing and subsequent direct marketing through its Corwen farm shop, a major organic outlet in North Wales.

“There is no doubt that there is an expanding market out there for farmers who want to sell directly to the consumer,” says Mr Davis.

“But from our experiences in retail design and from producing our own organic food, it has to be done properly otherwise customers will be attracted to garden centres which are now starting to offer the total retail experience under one roof.”

• Details can be found at www.farmshopfit.co.uk.