Home Farm becomes UK's fastest growing organic box company
A PAST winner of the nebusiness awards has become the fastest growing organic box company in the UK.
Three years after launching as part of the countrywide Riverford Organic franchise, Home Farm in Newby Wiske is delivering more than 3,000 boxes of organic produce every week - an increase of 40% over the past year alone.
Owned and farmed by Peter Richardson along with his wife Jo-ann, the business is bucking the national trend in box scheme sales which, according to figures from the Soil Association, is at best staying level and at worst declining.
Mr Richardson, who is the third generation of his family to farm 500-acre Home Farm, converted to organic in 1996, setting up the box scheme with Riverford 11 years later.
This year it plans to increase deliveries by 50%.
“Although we’ve been hit by the credit crunch like everyone else, the majority of our customers have stuck by us and we continue to attract new customers every day,” he said.
He put above average customer retention rates down to understanding customers’ needs, many of whom have only a novice grasp of cooking veg and are helped by weekly recipe ideas.
Riverford Organic at Home Farm won the Environment Award at the North East Business Awards in 2008.
