Farm shop revolution in St Albans

Far m s ho p rev ol u ti o n

Carpenter’s Nursery & Farm Shop in Hertfordshire is building on its history as a traditional farm shop and appealing to a new and growing audience tempted in by the tasty café menu and select garden range.

Houseplants and gifts are an expanding category at Carpenters.

Hertfordshire’s oldest farm shop is soon to celebrate 100 years of trading, and now with James Carpenter at the helm this independent and family run business, which to many has been a bit of an industry secret, is putting itself firmly on the garden centre map.

The farm shop is still the heart of the business and one of the few growing a significant proportion of the fresh fruit and veg sold on site. James knows this is the company’s usp and since he took over six years ago has used it as the foundation on which to expand. “We’ve always grown ‘Land Fit for Heroes’ scheme to help exservice men provide for their families. Out of the original six, only Carpenter’s Nursery & Farm Shop remains. The others have gone but James continues to live in the house and be a tenant of Hertfordshire County Council.

Fred grew vegetables and flowers which were sold at local markets and on the side of the road and it wasn’t until the 1960s when Fred junior joined the company that more glasshouses were built, the range of plants expanded and the site opened up for people to choose plants directly from the growing area. “It wasn’t really customer

Above: James Carpenter. our own and I remember as a kid in the late 1980s before supermarkets opened on a Sunday there would be a queue of 15 people out of the door coming in here for fruit and veg,” he says. James is honest when he says growing the fruit and veg isn’t a big money spinner now but adds: “It brings people through the door and without that we are just the same as everybody else.”

It was James’s great grandfather Fred Carpenter senior who started growing veg here in 1923, when he took tenancy of one of six houses, sharing a 12-acre plot after the first world war as part of the government’s

focused, but it carried on like that until the late 1980’s when my father and uncle joined,” says James. “They added a more modern greenhouse for growing but the business stayed a similar sort of model, which was growing plants, fruit and veg on site and selling to local people who could wander round and pick up what they wanted.”

James didn’t come into the business straight away. He had a career as an electrician which took him into the world of renewable energy and he also co-owned a wine bar – two skill sets which have since proved to be extremely useful. “When my dad was a few years off retirement age, I looked at the business. It had a great loyal customer base and is in a good location on the edge of St Albans where houses have lots of gardens, and I thought ‘I can do something with this’. So I invested some money to refurbish the farm shop first to see how that would go and test the water. I didn’t want to frighten people off because some have been coming here since the mid 1960’s.”

The investment was a success and this along with the new café, changes to product ranges, an enlarged plantaria with canopy and garden sundries range has meant staffing has increased from six to around 45 in peak season. Technology has helped too. James says it was all ‘pen and paper’ before he joined and the company didn’t even have a website. Solar panels now provide the majority of the power to run the heating, lighting and cooling of kitchen appliances. “I’ve got about ten kilowatts on the roof at the moment and am looking at another 15 kilowatts,” says James.

The farm shop was largely open throughout the pandemic which, James says, local people were extremely grateful for. At its peak it was handling 900 transactions a day. Although as expected, customer numbers have fallen since then, business is consistently strong. “We get people coming in once, twice a week, sometimes more, buying their bits and pieces for their meals. We also sell Cook meals and the vegetables to complement them, fresh meat and fish so customers can do their full food shop here now.” Lines are complimented by fresh bread daily from local bakers and a local beer named after Fred senior

Cabbages and courgettes destined for the farm shop.

In high season the farm shop sell 15 or more lines of home grown veg.

The Potting Shed Café

With around 60 covers, The Potting Shed Café is full almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The menu offers imaginative specials and uses produce grown on site, which has the bonus of reducing the amount of waste. “We’ve got a really good chef here and he’s got a good couple of other juniors underneath him. It’s a lot of hard work cooking everything fresh, but you’ll see from our website reviews and if you talk to people here it stands out. The dishes are great, fresh and a

bit different,” says James. Since its been open it has bounced between counter and table service, both of which have been a success. Although like many in the business, James is currently struggling to find staff. “It’s difficult trying to find hospitality staff and very difficult to find good hospitality staff,” he says. The café’s terrace offers fine views of the Hertfordshire countryside and the gazebos set up next to the wildflower meadow offer the chance to buy picnic style food and enjoy eating it amongst the flowers.

The garden shop

The glasshouse that grew seasonal bedding now has a new canopy installed in 2019 and is part of the garden centre area where shrubs, perennials, houseplants and gifts are sold – the latter two selling extremely well at the moment. Although space is limited, the range means customers can now buy around 99% of their gardening needs. “I’m always saying we can’t have something that’s not selling. We need to make sure we’re turning stock over quickly all the time because we haven’t got a huge amount of space…and it’s good because it sharpens the mind,” says James.

Being an independent business also has its benefits as James and his team can react quickly, like for example, going to another plant nursery and picking up what’s looking good at the time. It also means the range can be tailored to the customer base which at Carpenters is partly semi-rural, offer something

Fred’s Ale – a local brew for Carpenters and named after Fred senior. different to other garden retailers and stick close to the original ethos of the business which is family, friendly and plant based. This is a key issue as relatively close by are other successful garden retailers. “It’s interesting,” says James, “that three of the most successful retail businesses in St Albans are independent garden retailers - Ayletts Nurseries, Burston Garden Centre and ourselves.” Aware that high streets are suffering, James is promoting the advantages of his independent business, such as it being in beautiful surroundings and having free parking.

The future

In the current climate, it’s hard to make large commercial decisions so James is focussing on staffing and back of house systems to make them more efficient. But in the long term he would like to create more storage to reduce double handling and improve the surface of the car park.

Sales are currently growing at around 20% a year…during the pandemic they rose by 50% in the first half of 2020 and James knows that things get harder once a business is successful with a great reputation. “The pressure’s on. There’s only one way you can go, and that’s down so we have to keep the show on the road and keep those plates spinning. Someone always told me you have to keep putting your money into the winners…..but you need the team behind you as well to bring that to fruition. I’m about three-quarters of the way along the journey to get to where I wanted to get to in terms of the size,” says James. “I would like to do a little bit more in the garden shop in terms of the gift and houseplant range and see some improvements with the farm shop. Things don’t stand still in retail, you’ve got to keep ahead.”

The new canopy has been a boon for sales of plants and sundries.

Gazebos ready for picnics next to the wildflower meadow. Set up during the pandemic they have become a customer favourite.