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Walton Lea were recently visited by the 'Secret Millionaire' and have been given a record £20,000. Fullstory here.
Well done to all concerned!
A horticultural enterprise working with adults who have learning disabilities,
Walton Lea Project is a well established and well regarded charitable business producing fresh and local food to people from Runcorn and Warrington. Winners of the Warrington Guardian’s ‘Visitor’s Choice Award’ 2009, Walton Lea Project was described by Judges as ‘one of Warrington’s hidden treasures’, and voted as winners by the newspaper’s readers.
Set in a convenient and tranquil location near to the twin tourist attractions of Walton Hall and Gardens, and the Bridgewater Canal, the Project inhabits a Victorian walled garden with a newly refurbished shop. The Project is a visitor attraction in its own right, the garden providing an interesting and accessible example of varied seasonal food production, whilst the shop sells plants, locally sourced honey, eggs, preserves and cheeses and of course fresh fruit and vegetables directly from the garden.
Whilst wishing to preserve the tranquility of their workspace, the staff at Walton Lea Project are working to attract more visitors and customers to the shop and garden.
The Specialist Enterprise Support project team at Making Local Food Work assigned a consultant to Walton Lea Project in order to make recommendations on how to maximise the potential of the site and shop as a visitor attraction and to increase customer numbers and spend.
Consultants John Metcalfe and Andy Pickard of Rural Futures spent a day at Walton Lea Project working with horticulturalist Kate Fitch in order to produce a marketing report for management and trustees.
WHAT SETS YOU APART?
1. Hand grown, local product with known provenance
Customers can also visit the garden, giving customer assurance of what they are buying is fresh, hand-picked, local produce.
2. Sourced local produce with provenance
Through the Walton Lea farmer’s market there is direct access to a broader range of unique products direct from the producers. This begins to create a breadth of offering of product so that:
a. Customers expectations can be met
b. It offers additional sales volume through the shop.
To demonstrate that the products are unique and have local provenance the public could be informed at point of sale about the unique relationship with the producers, through the farmer’s market and to link the products to real people and places as with the garden prioduce.
3. A beautiful historic garden
The opportunity to wander at will and enjoy the tranquility, history, horticulture of the garden is what makes the shopping experience worthwhile.
4. Proximity to other attractions
The proximity to the tourist attractions of Walton Hall & Gardens and the Bridgewater Canal provide Walton Lea with the opportunity to encourage the public to visit in conjunction with the attractions nearby.
DEFINE THE PROPOSITION
Walton Lea Project as a Destination Shop
A “destination shop” is one which customers seek out to visit and shop in, travelling potentially long distances, and investing significant amounts of time in visiting. They believe that what they get will be unique and distinctive and they expect the experience of shopping to make the journey worthwhile. Generally they come determined to buy something and usually leave having done so.
The following are key elements to the appeal of a destination shop.
MERCHANDISING (Attracting customers to the shop)
Key points:
o Overall the appeal should be of rustic charm, so the level of investment in fixtures and fittings need not be high. Wicker baskets, wooden crates, garden trugs may prove perfectly adequate means of displaying produce.
o The shop needs to look well stocked with a good variety of merchandise, and be clean and tidy. Good lighting is also usually worth the investment, and prices should always be clear.
o in presenting your own produce make the direct link with the garden. Entry to the garden should be direct from the shop and be signed.
o Communicate simple messages via a blackboard, indicating what is in season – been picked today.
o Stock turn needs to be managed. The largest losses in retail come from waste with stock which is not turning quickly enough. Staff have already indicated an understanding of this and the ability to identify different sales patterns at the two sites.
o The retail area should also make a link to the other activities of both the farmers markets and to van deliveries. It may be that for some customers it will be easier to generate repeat business through these routes to market rather than through repeat visits to the site.
o To promote the wider stock it needs to be merchandised in a way which explains why it is unique local produce. The link with the farmers market is important and should be made. Similarly the producers should be recognized as real people from real local places and the merchandising of each producer’s products should clearly reflect this
CREATING FOOTFALL
1. Arriving by car
o Most visitors will arrive by car so in order to help them to find the site the access problem from the road should be addressed.
Action: Develop signage and route maps for promotional literature
2 Reaching your target audience
The power of PR
Reach your target audience easily through the local newspaper and local radio stations.
Advertising is fairly expensive but PR is relatively cheap and significantly more effective.
However while less costly in terms of funds it is more demanding in terms of time and imagination.
Tip: There is the continuous news of seasonal produce becoming available. Personal stories from the site. 12 headlines for release in the next 12 months and put the stories nto the appropriate hands at the papers or radio. The contact may be different for each story; news editor, food editor, business editor, gardening correspondent etc.
What is important is to start to generate a presence in this media which is read and listened to by your target audience. Appearing once will not do. You simply need to feature regularly to build awareness.
The first opportunity could be to write a story simply about seeking
specialist advice on developing the retail opportunity at the site.
When you don’t have a story you can create one, e.g. by hosting an open day, launch party, holding an anniversary celebration etc.
Action: Develop and implement a publicity and promotion campaign
3 Literature and its distribution
1. Exchange literature with other local tourism providers.
2. Use the van and farmers’ market for leaflet distribution.
3. Website optimization with clear retail offers and ’how to find us’. Link to your friends and
partners.
Action: Design and produce simple leaflets for distribution and refresh web content
The Walton Lea Project have already put in place some of the recommendations from the report, such as improving access to the garden from the shop and creating a 'what's in season' page on the website.
Watch out for further updates on The Walton Lea Project following support from Making Local Food Work
Special thanks to Kate and the team for allowing us to share the report on our work at Walton Lea.
Visit The Walton Lea Project
