In the latest in Speciality & Fine Food Fair's Behind the Counter series we talk to Ardross Farm's Claire Sloan about making the leap from farming to running a farm shop and what it means to be an independent business. 

Tell us a bit about Ardross Farm Shop – how did it start and what makes it unique?

We are a small family farm in the East Neuk of Fife. We opened the farm shop in 2005, to sell local food to local people. We produce our own pasture for life cattle, and sheep which are all sold through the shop. We also grow over 50 varieties of vegetables, produce our own honey and have our own farmhouse kitchen which produces everything from soups, to jams, to home baking and pies.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone planning to open their own retail/hospitality business?

We were and are farmers and when we started the farm shop we knew nothing of retails, we believe this was a huge advantage to us as it made us listen to our customers and everything we did was driven by their wants and needs. I would definitely recommend this to anyone starting out.

How do you approach sourcing new products?

We concentrate on local produce first, every single thing in our shop has been tried and tasted by us (hard job, we know) to ensure quality. We want to know the people and the story behind everything we sell so we can believe in each and every product in the shop.

Why do you think customers come to your shop?

We believe our customers are looking for good honest food. They want to know the people behind the produce and they want to believe in the way all the produce is produced. We think customer services is a huge part of this, our staff are extremely knowledgeable about all our products and are also on hand to give cooking advice and inspiration when needed.

How do you keep up with the latest trends and innovations in retail and food & drink?

We are members of lots of food and retails groups including, Farm Retail Association, Scottish Agritourism and many more. This allows us to connect with likeminded people and pull ideas and inspiration from lots of other businesses. We are also constantly on social media following businesses across the world, and reading magazines and attending trade fairs.

Which wholesaler(s) do you work with?

We work with a few wholesalers including CressCo, however the majority of our stock comes from small local suppliers who deliver into us individually on a weekly basis.

What’s a funny or fond memory of something that’s happened in your shop over the years?

I always remember when we started, we had suppliers coming in talking about RRPs, EPOS and lots of other abbreviations that we had no idea about. After a lot of googling we finally got our heads round them all and 20 years later we can talk about them with confidence however at the start it was a massive learning curve.

What’s a ‘hidden gem’ product in your store that you always recommend customers try?

I think our hidden gem is our beef – this includes all our butchers cuts, of steaks, roast etc but also the steak pies produced in our kitchen. We think it really represents what we are trying to do in our business and hopefully the taste reflects this.

What does it mean to you to be an independent business?

It means a huge amount to us to be an independent business, we live in a fairly rural community and to be able to support the amount of small and local businesses that we do is fantastic. This is not just the suppliers of our amazing products, but even the till company we use, the company that suppliers our bags and everything else the business needs are all from small local businesses.

What’s a challenge the business has had to overcome in recent years?

I think the cost of living is definitely been a challenge, the costs of all our products have been rising hugely and we are struggling to maintain margins. The recent changes to NI and minimum wage have only compounded these issues and we are very interested to see the knock on effect of this. We have already had two small business which used to supply us with fantastic products, who have now made the decision to stop this directly because of these new changes.

What’s coming up in the next 12 months?

We are really trying to focus on what we do, and how we can do it better. We are always expanding the amount of vegetables we grow, trying to have large varieties for a longer season. We want to focus on making the most of all our produce, and this includes making tallow soap and skin care products with the beef tallow produced from our cattle. Expanding the range of ready meals and other offerings from our kitchen, in the hope we can make good food convenient for our customers.

Find out more at ardrossfarm.co.uk.