Bank End Farm, was a thriving, family-run fruit farm in Finningley, outside Doncaster. But farmer David McCallum wanted to take the business on a stage, build a brand and sell his products to a much wider market.
Meet the McCallums
- The McCallums farm is a real family concern.
- Grandfather Andrew McCallum looks after the fruit farming and fishing lakes.
- Grandmother Majorie deals with the office accounts and the café.
- Her son David manages the farm shop and daughter-in-law Fiona, is the creative forced behind the farm’s themed range of hampers and fruit baskets
Farming has been a way of life for the McCallums for generations, so it was decided to re-brand Bank End Farm using the family name and to launch a website that is now successfully selling hampers and fruit baskets across the UK and beyond.
The McCallum family has farmed for generations and grows a range of traditional English fruit varieties including cherries, strawberries, apples and pears at Bank End Farm outside Doncaster. It first opened the farm to the public in 1992, selling strawberries at the gate and in its ‘pick your own’ fields. Over the years, the McCallums increased the different types of fruit they produced and they soon outgrew the small farm shop.
With help from South Yorkshire Business Link and assisted by government and EU grants, the family set up a new farm shop in 2004, in a converted barn. The shop sells the family’s own produce as well as products such as pork pies, cheese and honey made by 58 different local firms. The family also runs a café, a hamper and fruit basket business and fishing lakes stocked with carp, bream, tench and roach.
‘We knew that we wanted to move the business on,’ says farm shop manager David McCallum. ‘Most farm shops focus on organic meat but we specialise in fruit and that’s our selling point. We wanted to be able to reach a wider market. A website looked like the answer but I didn’t really know where to start.’
A contact at South Yorkshire Business Link suggested that McCallum got involved with the Design Council’s Designing Demand programme - this helps companies discover what design can do for them. Designing Demand is part of the Government’s national package of publicly funded business support products, Solutions for Business. The programme appoints a design associate – an experienced designer - who will act as a mentor and advisor on a particular project.
Find out more about how Designing Demand can give small businesses the skills to spot how design can boost performance on its website www.designingdemand.org.uk