milk vending machine

[onesiedale]

What great posts . To what extent do you connect with your customers? Would you go as far as friends with some?

As ours is an Honesty Shop, we tend not to see the vast majority of our customers. However, you do get to notice regulars and when stocking the fridge/freezer it is a good time to engage with whoever is there at the time.
Wouldn't say we become friends, but it is really nice to see a friendly face on the farm. It has brought a whole new dimension to our business.
Most people we speak with really appreciate the trust that we offer them. They regard it as 'their' shop.

 

[Whitewalker]

As ours is an Honesty Shop, we tend not to see the vast majority of our customers. However, you do get to notice regulars and when stocking the fridge/freezer it is a good time to engage with whoever is there at the time.
Wouldn't say we become friends, but it is really nice to see a friendly face on the farm. It has brought a whole new dimension to our business.
Most people we speak with really appreciate the trust that we offer them. They regard it as 'their' shop.

That’s interesting.

 

[onesiedale]

The visitors book is always a good way of connecting with the customer

 

[Tim G]

What great posts . To what extent do you connect with your customers? Would you go as far as friends with some?

I'd say we're on first name terms with many, you'd probably have a beer with some of them if you bumped into them in the pub (when that was allowed!) but that's where we'd draw the line. Like @onesiedale we ran our shop on a honesty basis and that worked okay. We found since March that we had to be available for card payments etc, so usually one of us is in there or nearby through the morning. Some come in an afternoon because they don't want contact, others come in the morning because they do. Quite a few like to have a chat when they've time.

 

[Whitewalker]

Have you any idea the size of your customer bases? @onesiedale

@Tim G id imagine you know more because of raw milk

 

[Tim G]

Have you any idea the size of your customer bases? @onesiedale

@Tim G id imagine you know more because of raw milk

We aren't required to record customers*, some have a litre, some take 20, currently there is a bit over 150 litres being delivered by two milk men a week. Production is around 1000 litres a week and most is sold as milk, a bit is further processed for cream as and when. We've customers coming from London, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex, it helps a bit in that there is no one else doing raw cows milk in Essex (not many dairy farms either) North Suffolk and Hertfordshire are the next nearest to us.

*we do need, and have, a recall procedure should we need it as part of our Food Management Safety Plan, and that has to be approved within our audit from the Food Standards Agency.

 

[onesiedale]

Regarding our customer base, for the honesty shop, we don't know exactly.
For the ice cream/wholesale we have around 90 accounts.
We do not sell our milk wholesale - only direct to shop customers
Butter mainly sold direct through our shop and a growing amount by mail order

 

[Whitewalker]

Regarding our customer base, for the honesty shop, we don't know exactly.
For the ice cream/wholesale we have around 90 accounts.
We do not sell our milk wholesale - only direct to shop customers
Butter mainly sold direct through our shop and a growing amount by mail order

I know you use a dairy for your butter making, how difficult would it be to start from scratch. These things look complicated from outside looking in ?

 

[Tim G]

We made plenty with a cheap cream separator and our kitchen mixer. Not a long term ideal but gets you started.

 

[Whitewalker]

What does it work out per litre adding value compared to drinking milk ?

 

[onesiedale]

To be honest, it's bloody difficult to start from scratch. Not just the CapEx of equipmen/premisest, but also packaging, hygiene regs,. logistics and of course getting customers to have faith in you. Then once you have committed to a customer, you've got to be there next week for them . . and the week after . . . and the week after.

Regarding dairy products, if you can find someone local to you to contract process for you, (by this I mean hiring equipment/premises with you doing a large amount of the work too) then you can work on the selling end.
There will not be much margin in it for you, especially if you value your time in there, but the learning curve is priceless. (of course it is relatively risk free.)

 

[onesiedale]

What does it work out per litre adding value compared to drinking milk ?

How long is a piece of string!

 

[Tim G]

What does it work out per litre adding value compared to drinking milk ?

It doesn't add value to drinking milk, at least not for us, but our milk price is high to start with. If we priced it on the basis of the value of the milk thats used, it would be too expensive to sell. We only make butter when there is a surplus of milk/cream, so I kind of look at it as taking the value from something that would otherwise be wasted.

 

[Sid]

There will not be much margin in it for you, especially if you value your time in there

Farmers favourite that, not valuing their time.

 

[Ducati899]

They’ve done one here and definitely this. It’s another tie, people will soon get pee'd off and stop coming if they rock up and find machine empty. From what I’ve seen around and about I wonder if it’s in danger of being done to death

seen one today and thought that was where you are,people were queuing at half midday and 3 pm when we came back through but I agree with that it seems to be done to death round here,think we’ve a 6 within 5/10 min drive of here

 

[upnortheast]

seen one today and thought that was where you are,people were queuing at half midday and 3 pm when we came back through but I agree with that it seems to be done to death round here,think we’ve a 6 within 5/10 min drive of here

I`ve always thought the key to success is doing something no one else is doing. Find your own USP, don`t jump on a bandwagon

 

[farmboy]

seen one today and thought that was where you are,people were queuing at half midday and 3 pm when we came back through but I agree with that it seems to be done to death round here,think we’ve a 6 within 5/10 min drive of here

Yeah that would have been ours, gone mad again cos of lockdown. Guy not far from here had about 6?? Machines got more on order. Place up near Salisbury got 3 I believe and loads of others with one

 

[Agrifool]

In the ideal situation where is best to divert milk in the dairy for pasteurizing.? Divert after milk sock filter or let it go straight to bulk tank and then transfer somehow to pasteurizer?

 

[onesiedale]

Presumably your pasteurizer is in a different room to your milk tank. Set your delivery line up to supply either tank or pasteurizer. But ensure there is a circulation line for cleaning all of the delivery line to both tanks.

 

[Whitewalker]

In the ideal situation where is best to divert milk in the dairy for pasteurizing.? Divert after milk sock filter or let it go straight to bulk tank and then transfer somehow to pasteurizer?

Smaller volumes. Fly past the bulk tank and pasteurise immediately while milk is still warm. Bigger volumes I don’t know.