Holt Farm - Business launch & social media

Holt Farm is a new online farmers market and fruit & veg box scheme serving Essex and Suffolk. It was launched by farmer, Pete Thompson, when he lost all his wholesale business as restaurants were forced to close in response to the Corona virus pandemic. The initial idea was to supply local people with fresh produce, to find a new use for some of the crops in the ground and to keep some of his staff employed.

Having worked as an external marketing team for Pete’s brands Cotchel, Reliquum and Thompson’s Baijiu since 2017, Pete called in my support to build the new business from scratch and reach a local audience. We began with a simple online shop on an existing website, but swiftly recognised we needed a dedicated site as orders were so high. We developed the brand story brought in a graphic designer to create a brand identity, a web development agency to build an easy to manage online shop in Shopify. We created social media accounts for the new business primarily focussing on Facebook for a local audience and Instagram for dedicated foodies.

Since the business launched in late March, Holt Farm has grown a loyal local audience and is delivering 150 fruit and veg boxes twice weekly. continue to manage their social media, create content for a regular newsletter and build the brand through local and national pr. A recent success was a feature on Channel 5’s A Week on the Farm.

“Polly Robinson has worked with us for a number of years, launching and supporting a number of products and supporting our senior & commercial teams. Polly has ensured we have reached above and beyond our aspired customer base and delivered great value for money. We look forward to continuing to work with Polly in the future. She brings with invaluable PR & Marketing savvy beyond the brief and is a pleasure to work with.”

Pete Thompson, Founder Holt Farm, Reliquum, Cotchel and British Baijiu

holt-farm.co.uk

Branding - Workshop Facilitation

Lawson's Delicatessen in Aldeburgh, is a much-loved specialist food retailer on the Suffolk Coast. When the founders retired and sold the business in January 2017, the new owners asked me to facilitate an away-day workshop for them and the staff. The objective of the day was to give the staff the opportunity to share their thoughts about the strengths and weaknesses of the business and explore ideas and new opportunities drawing on their years of experience in the shop.

The challenge was to create a welcoming and open environment for all the team to share their thoughts and listen to each other. It was important to make sure the team felt valued by Lawson's new owners and give them all a chance to get to know each other better.

I developed a number of exercises and games to make the day fun and engaging. We had cheese jokes, lots of post-it notes and quizzes.  I worked hard to make sure that everyone was involved and listened to and to make sure the discussion kept moving.

We wrapped up the day with a tutored cheese tasting and delicious lunch. It was an unusual opportunity for the whole team to get together away from the busy shop and have the chance to chat together.

As a result of the workshop, we developed a long list of actions for the team to put into place immediately as well as identifying some interesting ideas for development or improvements that will be implemented.