DRINK ∙ FOOD ∙ GOOD TIMES
Summer at Ludlow Farmshop
20.07.26
As we approach the summer months, I am hoping that we see some longer, settled periods. Early spring has been very inconsistent with some exceptionally wet days, followed by very high temperatures and this brings us challenges with our hospitality areas of our business, especially Ludlow Pantry, our takeaway.
I am delighted that we were awarded Best Large Farmshop at the Farm Shop & Deli Awards this year. We last won the award ten years ago and the recognition is especially important to me personally, due to the number of changes we have made in the farm shop. My whole team worked tirelessly to deliver the changes, which were designed to give our customers an improved shopping experience… I hope you like them.
As a result of these changes, we have been able to give more space in the farm shop to our Walled Garden products. I visited the Walled Garden recently to catch up with Darren, the Head Gardener there and I was amazed by the amount of produce that he has planted for the summer months, which will be on the menus at The Clive Arms and Ludlow Kitchen, as well as in the farm shop🌱
As you know, keeping our carbon footprint as low as possible is a key goal for us. We have enjoyed the fruits of having our electricity supplied from our solar farm for some time but, despite this, we are still affected by global events and we expect to see the cost of this increase. Reviewing our operation to ensure we keep consumption low is not only a financial objective. The new fridges installed use around 50% less energy and our Fresh Produce fridges have already reduced the amount of waste in their first three months by 25%.
Although summer is just around the corner, our plans for Christmas are already fully evolved. Our Christmas stock orders have now been placed for those special treats that we are well known for, especially confectionery items. Squeezing the extra lines of stock into the farm shop is often challenging, however we have earmarked some additional space which will be dedicated to Christmas, so shopping the entire range will be easier for our customers. We know that many of our customers like to buy these items over a number of weeks, so launching the range is likely to be in September this year, including our gifting range at Ludlow Giftshop.
Santa will be visiting us again this year, as well as our suppliers for our Christmas Tasting weekend. More details of our festive activities will be available shortly, including Christmas at The Clive Arms✨
Our loyalty scheme is being reviewed currently, with our aim to provide more offers, events and incentives to our huge number of loyalty card holders. This will be launched over the summer months.
This is absolutely a business which looks forward. However, I do like to look back at all of our achievements too. Over the last eight years, I have worked closely with Jess Harrison, who you may know from the site updates given on social media. Jess has been a wonderful deputy and a great support to the team and myself. Jess leaves us in June to take up challenges outside of retail and hospitality. She will be greatly missed and I hope you will all join with me to wish her every success in her new career💙
I hope you all enjoy the summer and, as always, I thank you for your continued support!
