Hampshire’s food & drink heroes: Part II
Above: Davina and Kevin Winch of Honeyfords
Best Retailer of the Year
Honeyfords Country Butchers
Davinia & Kevin Winch
How did you get started?
Kevin and I met on holiday seven years ago, and I moved to Essex to live with him. Although he had been a butcher since he left school, he sold his house and found a factory job in Hampshire so he could be with me. Not long after, a friend spotted a butcher’s job in the paper with a note saying there was a prospect of buying the business. We approached the owner on Monday and by Friday it was ours.
How do you feel about winning?
Absolutely amazed! We never expected to get so far. Our customers are so proud they keep wanting to shake our hands.
What do you think are your business’s winning qualities?
The fact that we source so much locally, as well as the personal care and involvement that we give.
Apart from winning this award what has been one of your best moments
in the past year?
Kevin doubling Christmas orders in four years – that really shows we are doing something right. We also won five bronze awards at the Great Hampshire Pie and Sausage competition this year.
What’s the most important part of the business to you?
Our local customers who are the backbone of our business. Although local doesn’t mean just round the corner. We have customers who travel from Portsmouth, Sussex and Middlesex.
What are your plans for developing and improving your business?
Last year we bought a refrigerated van and over the next year we would like to build up a business delivering to homes and workplaces.
Best Food Producer of the Year
Wallops Wood Dairy, Droxford
Sam & Anna Martin
Your Business in brief
We farm a herd of Gloucester Old Spot pigs in the Meon Valley. As a farming family we are traditionally dairy farmers, but we started the pig herd up in 2005 and built it up to what it is today.
All of our pigs are free range, living in large paddocks high on the chalk hills that characterise our farm. We feed them a diet that is enriched with apple pulp from nearby Hill Farm Orchards, maize silage and we also have some pigs in the woods in autumn to graze the fallen acorns and beech masts.
This, together with the stress-free farming system, gives the meat a totally different flavour to that of other pork.
How do you feel about winning?
We were absolutely thrilled. We constantly work to improve the flavour and quality of our pork, from improving the animal welfare to improving the standard of meat handling in the butchery, so it was fantastic to receive the recognition of an independent judge, as well as being nominated by our customers who buy our meat every day.
What do you think are your business’s winning qualities?
We put a lot of time into ensuring the welfare of our animals is of the highest standard. We do very little to complicate the flavour of the pork. We add absolutely no artificial flavourings or colouring to any of our products.
Apart from winning this award - what has been one of your best moments in the past year?
We have had quite a few visits this year from various childrens’ organisations, from the Brownies to a local school, and it’s been great to help educate these children about where their food comes from.
What is the most important part of the business to you?
This has to be the customers - both the ones that buy direct from us and the ones that eat our pork in the pubs and restaurants we supply. We endeavour to listen to all their comments and take them on board.
What are your plans to develop and improve the business?
We are starting to make more charcuterie style products, including salami, air-dried bacons and hams and potted pork. We are currently doing trials and hope to be retailing these products by Christmas.
Best Drinks Producer of the Year Hill |
Farm Products, Swanmore
Chris & Carol Mason
Your business in brief
Although the fruit farm has been in the family for over 30 years, the apple juice business has really taken off since 2001. This was when we started making a range of individual variety juices using traditional English varieties such as Cox and Russet.
How do you feel about winning?
It is very satisfying to receive this award in recognition of our efforts, but we feel that we are also accepting it behalf of all the other great Hampshire drinks producers. We are very grateful to the kind people who nominated us for the award; we know that our customers enjoy our juices as they keep coming back to buy them!
What do you think are your business’s winning qualities?
We make a traditional product in a traditional way, but with modern methods and machinery so that we can guarantee high quality. The fruit we use has either been grown by us or by farms we know well so we can be confident of the provenance of the finished product.
Secondly we have a very hands-on policy, getting 100 per cent involved with every stage from growing the fruit, pressing and bottling the juice to meeting the customers and giving tastings at farmers’ markets and food fairs and shows.
We put a lot of love and dedication into what we do and we have a dedicated team of local staff who have the same ethos.
Apart from winning this award – what has been one of your best moments in the past year?
We were asked by a very well known person to provide an apple juice tasting for a private party he was holding for some of his friends. This was held in the gardens of a beautiful country house and was a real occasion.
What’s the most important part of the business to you?
Working with a lovely team of people to produce a genuine farm-based product; then at farmers’ markets meeting some of the customers who drink it and keep coming back for more!
What are your plans for developing and improving your business?
We have recently introduced an innovative ‘Bag-in-Box’ pack and we plan to develop this both for home use and for catering establishments such as schools and cafes.
Pay a visit
Hill Farm Products Ltd
Droxford Road, Swanmore SO32 2PY
Tel: 01489 878685