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McCallums
Introduction
Designing Demand has helped a family-run farm shop to expand and reach a wider market thanks to a rebranding exercise which has sharpened their strategic thinking.
Summary
Bank End Farm, based at Finningley, near Doncaster, sold traditional English fruit varieties as well as products from 58 local suppliers, and ran a café, fishing lakes, and a hamper/fruit-basket business. The venture soon outgrew its small farm shop and opened another in a converted barn in 2004, with help from Business Link South Yorkshire and assisted by grants from Yorkshire Forward.
However, the McCallums were keen to reach a wider market, beyond local consumers, and a website looked like the answer—but they didn’t know where to start. So they joined the Designing Demand Generate service and began working with design associate Andy Cripps. Designing Demand helps SMEs to understand how design can add value to their business through increased profits, better productivity and sustained competitiveness.)
Cripps advised the business to develop a new brand: ‘Bank End Farm’ didn’t mean anything beyond the local area, whereas people like the idea of a family-run farm—so they went with the name ‘McCallums’. Cripps helped the family to find a design consultancy to develop the identity and a website, and to understand that, at £15,000, the rebranding was a serious investment—a design consultancy provides strategic thinking as well as creative concepts.
With a new identity and website, drawing strongly on lifestyle photography, the brand now appeals to the sort of people who read Country Living. The new look extends across everything from the café menus to packaging and signage, creating a more integrated, professional feel.
What is Yorkshire Forward’s connection with this initiative?
Designing Demand is a national programme developed by the Design Council and administered regionally by the regional development agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward (which trialled the first national pilot in South Yorkshire from 2005-2008). Now available across the region, Designing Demand is run in Yorkshire by Business Link Yorkshire.
