How to take part in British Food Fortnight

Retailers

Increase your stock of British food

• Look at your existing stock. Is any of it British? Atul Sodha runs Londis Peverills in Middlesex and had not realised how much local food and drink he already sold. Fresh fruit pies and fillings for ‘Breakfast Baps’ were all local but he had not previously promoted them as such. 

• Just because you know that the food and drink you stock is British, don’t assume that your customers do! Retailer Paul Delves in Ludlow has been supporting local produce for more than 25 years but didn’t shout about it until taking part in British Food Fortnight.

• Expand the range of regional food that you stock. British Food Fortnight is a good time to launch new products. 84% of new lines of food and drink stocked for British Food Fortnight promotions are retained afterwards.

• Install a chill-counter so you can sell fresh, delicatessen-type food.

• Don’t forget to look for new suppliers close to home: Helen Saunders launched ‘fair deal’ milk, cream and live yoghurts in her shop, Capers, buying direct from a local dairy farmer.

Highlight British food in-store

• Highlight British produce with POS material using the British Food Fortnight logo or a Union Jack. 

• Rather than just use the term ‘local’, name the producers and farms. If you are unable to specify producers or farms by name then use generic phrases such as ‘All the meat sold comes from within 30 miles of this shop.’

• Create a display of British food and drink in your shop window and/or on a table positioned in a prominent place so that customers can see the British products available when they walk in. A display is also a useful draw for the media as it creates a talking point and is easily photographed.

• Keep customers informed about new produce with a monthly newsletter.

Offer tastings to promote British food

• Run an in-store promotion or tasting. This could be a tasting of new or existing products in your shop. Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in Melton Mowbray gives free pork pie samples in the shop throughout the Fortnight and even goes out onto the street offering samples.

• Cross-sell. If you organise a tasting for regional cheeses then match these with different chutneys or cheese biscuits. 

• Invite suppliers and producers into your shop. No one will be as passionate or knowledgeable about a product than the person who produces it. Retailers report that sales of products offered for tasting double when the producer is in-store. Some retailers create mini-farmers’ markets in their car parks and ‘Meet the Producers’ events in-store. 

• Position a board either in your window or outside the store telling customers which products are being tasted.

Team up with local pubs and restaurants

• Suggest that they plan a special menu during the Fortnight that features the products you sell: either a menu that runs throughout the event or a one-off that ties in with a themed night. This is an excellent way of making potential customers aware of what you stock. The Cheese Gig shop teamed up with The Green Dragon pub in Somerset to offer a special West Country cheese board. 

Use British Food Fortnight as a catalyst for building long-term opportunities

• Start small but think big! A greengrocer in West Yorkshire delivered fruit and veg to schools and gave pupils talks during British Food Fortnight. He has since won a three-year contract to supply fruit and veg to 30 schools in the area. Elliot’s store near Harrogate used the national event to promote the flour they stock by making it into bread. Customers continued to come in for bread after the promotion and as a result they have developed a new cottage industry. 

• Launch a healthy lunch box service for school children, regional food hampers for tourists, special occasion hampers for presents or seasonal packed lunches for office workers to grab on their way to work.



• And for the ambitious…develop your own range of food with local producer partners: ice cream with dairy farmers, crisps with potato farmers, pies, pates and ready-made meals with local meat, quiches with local eggs.

See our Retailers section for more advice on taking part, case studies of retailers who have taken part, downloadable resources and promotional material.