Speciality-Food-Magazine-November-December-2024

local, fresh produce, and taps into what is coming out of the bakery – something customers hugely appreciate. “Bread is baked in the morning at 4am (about 70 to 80 loaves a day) and they have it in the kitchen to use from 9.30amwhen we open. The meat comes from our own butchery at Powderham, fish is fromBrixham, coffee is from a guy two miles down the stream. We’re very much a destination and, for our footprint, we are very very busy. On a good day we will do 200 covers at lunch and lots of cream teas in the afternoon. If youmake a good scone you can’t go wrong!” RETAINING CUSTOMERS Chris is keenly aware Otterton’s location is ‘off the beaten track’, so once customers are on-site, retaining them, increasing dwell time and specialityfoodmagazine.com 37 and something doesn’t sell. This market is great for new suppliers, and we need to champion then and give them a try.” If you happen to be lucky enough to have your own bakery or cafe, cross-promotion is key to success as well. “One thing we do is, there’s loads of different chutney and jampeople, and some are very generic and available in lots of farm shops. We try to have ones that are, perhaps, more specific to Devon, and we use a lot of them in our cafe. So, if you had a beef sandwich today, it would come with some form of red onionmarmalade. If you like that, you can buy it in the shop, and also buy the bread and the butter!” A DESTINATION FOR DINING Otterton’s cafe is a big draw – helped by the fact it has awards under its belt. The menu is based around buying opportunities, is crucial to the business’s ongoing success. “We’re a small place, easily missed from the road,” he says. “But if you come in off the road you’ll see a lot is going on. It’s a bit of a hidden gem. We’ve got a good reputation locally and a very strong following. Lots of people who live in the village, when they have friends and family down, will come to the mill.” When you operate in a rural spot you have to keep “working on that reputation and making it somewhere people want to come back to.” Chris brings international musicians, many of them from the States, to Devon during the summer for a series of incredibly popular outdoor gigs which have a defined impact on footfall. Having an art gallery and craft centre is a boom, too. “They are a major part of our business and not a Powderham enjoys a key location off a main road, and attracts droves of ready-made customers, visiting for weddings, mediaeval weekends, jousting events and to hear the dulcet tones of acts such as Tom Jones. “It had taken a bit of a hit in the six months prior to completion of sale,” Chris admits. “We wanted to rebuild it as another visitor destination, and for it to have a positive reflection of the castle. We’ve worked in a bit of what we do at Otterton, and the bistro was rather complex in its operation, so we’ve simplified that too. We’re getting great feedback.” Running both sites allows the teams to put best practice into action across them, is fantastic for cross-promotion, and works from a supply chain point of view too. Meat fromPowderham’s butchery counter (including the estate’s fallow deer) is dropped at Otterton, while Otterton’s bread, bakes, savouries and cakes are delighting diners and shoppers at Powderham. There has been the opportunity for staff to crossover locations as well. “We have people that work in both sites,” explains Chris. “That gives us the opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t, to share ideas, and to have the same approach across them.” Running both sites isn’t phasing Chris, who says he is excited and relishes everything they do. The only challenge, as throughout the industry, is staffing. “Hospitality has taken a hit in the last few years. It’s a constant thing,” he says. “But I’m still glad we took the decision to do this last year, and I have to remindmyself that we haven’t had it a year yet. We need to be a little more patient managing our expectations!” small operation,” he explains. “We have at least 150 artists in there, selling everything from bracelets and paintings to ceramics. It’s a good reason to come here, because it’s not stuff you’ll be able to buy on the internet. A lot of it comes from the local area and the wider South-West, and our customers love that.” Getting people in the door is, “hard work, building on what we do year-on-year”. And youmust be consistent for success, Chris stresses. “Some days you’ll think, ‘we probably didn’t make a lot of money today’, but you have to be open and be consistent, and build that reliability in the back of people’s minds. They need to know they can come here and we’ll be open, come rain or shine.” REIGNING AT THE CASTLE Powderham castle is more than 600 years old. The current resident earl’s ancestors were involved in the French Revolution. It’s a phenomenal estate, with a farm shop, country stores and other outlets. And it’s proved the perfect location for the Wright family to share their experience, having taken on the farm shop and its bistro in 2023. “We happened to be out having coffee over there and for whatever reason, I looked on social media to see it had become available,” Chris says. “At the time I was probably looking for more of a challenge. It’s a fantastic site with huge potential.” Just a short drive fromOtterton, Powderham shares a rich and varied history with the mill location, but has a very different dynamic in terms of customer base. While Otterton is almost hidden, Whenwe’re talking about thousands of years, our tenure is nothing. We have to view this as our little bit of time at this site