Daylesford Organic: selling country life in London

Nothing but the best and everything hand-crafted. The massively expanding organic company belonging to the Bamford family shows how a rural idyll, that is organic into the bargain, can be marketed in London. Cool understatement, the charm of gardens in the country and craft production characterise the brand “Daylesford Organic”. This very special organic company now employs 250 people. This combination of organic, high value and the longing for the country life is unique in London.

Picture: Daylesford Organic near Sloane Square in London

Special types of ham, sausage and cheese, finely displayed fresh vegetables and a good wine department: five minutes walk from Sloane Square in London, you come to Daylesford Organic with its three storeys (414 m² - 4500 ft²) where you can find everything to delight the taste buds of the gourmet. Above the shelves are pictures of the countryside: a pig wallowing in the mud, a cow in the meadow, a chicken in the grass. Pictures of lovely vegetables: a bunch of carrots just pulled from the ground, a swede with green leaves that was still in the ground a few seconds before. Country life is promoted and staged as something very desirable. The store is completely fitted out with white marble (see photo left) - not only the walls and floor but also the massive shelves, the counters for bakery goods, fresh salads, cheese and sausage, the displays of vegetables, and the tables for guests who come here to drink their morning tea and eat toast or croissants. If you are surprised at such opulence, you are told that that this material is durable and in fact never wears out. And, of course, they have to make themselves stand out from the huge number of breakfast cafes and restaurants in London. Being organic is in itself not enough because there are already other places offering organic quality. This combination of organic, high value and the longing for the country life is unique in London.

What has been built up in the last five years is without parallel in England. Twenty years ago, the family farm in Staffordshire was converted to organic. Around ten years ago, the farm in Daylesford northwest of Oxford was acquired. The two farms comprise 3150 ha (7500 acres), on which are kept pigs, cattle and chickens. 125 dairy cows produce the raw material for Cheddar cheese that is mainly consumed in Britain. 98 % of all the cheese in the cheese-making plant is Cheddar and it has already won prizes. 1.5 % of the cheese is Camembert-style and 0.5% is Feta-style cheese. Most of the cheese is sold in the company’s own shops, and half a dozen delicatessens in London are also supplied. They are not looking for more outlets because they want the brand Daylesford Organic to remain exclusive.

In 2002, a superior farm shop was opened, with an on site bakery, creamery and dairy. An own abattoir was installed on there farm site in Staffordshire. A wellness centre with spa was also set up to create another focal point in the rural community, and now customers do indeed stream in every day from Oxford, Bristol and Bath to buy authentic, natural produce: bread from the bakery, fruit yoghurt from the farm’s own dairy, beef, lamb and venison. They said the deer herd was converted to organic twenty years ago, and they have been selling not just the meat but also the hides and the antlers. They turn the antlers into handles for beer bottle openers, cutlery, cork screws, and for a little stainless steel garden trowel costing 95 Pounds (140 €). You wouldn’t just have to be a keen gardener to buy such an object - you’d have to be totally obsessed and really well-off.

You used to be able to buy this little garden trowel with the antler handle only in the garden shop in Daylesford, but it is now on sale in “The Garden”, a shop (picture) that opened on 19th May 2007 opposite the already mentioned organic food shop that opened the previous February. On sale are pot plants according to season, lovely pots, organic seeds and lots of useful things like garden tools, hoes, gloves, string for marking rows and gardening books. Candles in jars for outside, baskets and garden furniture too - you can buy all manners of nice, durable and practical things - and at normal prices. Most products are sold under the brand name Daylesford Natural, with some items like a small range of natural paints being supplied by other companies.

In a prime location on Sloane Square, a stone’s throw from the exclusive Sloane Street, is located a clothes shop “Bamford and sons”, a business run by Carol Bamford and her son. The shop has three storeys for men’s and women’s fashions of  simple but elegant design in white, beige, brown and blue tones. Two expensively presented catalogues, with pictures in black and white too, convey the right feeling. The lifestyle photos carry sayings by Henry David Thoreau and Milton Berle like “Laughter is an instant vacation”. Here and there, some clothing items point to organic production in, for example, the case of some items in the small stock of children’s clothes, men’s T-shirts and the women’s collection. The number of  items from organic production is to be increased gradually. Bamford and sons has two more clothes shops in Notting Hill and Wimbledon.

In the basement of the clothes shop, and hardly noticeable from the street, is a thriving Daylesford Organic Café selling a small selection of food. At lunchtime and throughout the day, light meals are served: freshly pressed juices, for example, beetroot, cucumber, apple, different varieties of coffee and tea, soups, tortilla wraps, omelettes, sandwiches and salads. The friendly staff confirm that “of course, everything is organic.” Even though it is organic, the prices are within the usual range for London (£ 3 - £ 13). The priority when it comes to sourcing products is that they are local and wherever possible from Daylesford itself. An exception for guests looking for something more exotic are the bottles of still water from distant countries. As well as from England and Wales, there is water from Norway and Japan.  ‘Food miles’, so often referred to, seem to play no part where water is concerned.
There are 36 seats at heavy tables in the café. The chairs are so solidly built you can hardly lift them to get nearer to the table. Here too light grey reigns, and the well placed colour pictures of vegetables on the walls make the connection with healthy eating: turnip balanced on broccoli, which is itself lying on a parsnip. Colour A4 leaflets, that are in all the shops for the growing number of customers to take away, provide information on the latest developments in and around Daylesford and on what is available at any particular time of year.

Daylesford Organic has another outlet in Selfridges, the huge, famous, department store in Oxford Street. In the  Food Hall, some 1000 square meters large, you will see a sales stand occupied by Daylesford Organic. A five metre fresh-food counter sells salads, sandwiches and  pastries for a quick snack or to take home. Behind this counter is a shelving unit where you can buy dry goods like jams, dried fruits and pasta.

Since April 2007, Daylesford has had a fresh meat counter in one of the well known organic supermarkets in London, namely Planet Organic in Westbourne Grove. Since many potential customers do not live in the vicinity of one of Daylesford Organic’s outlets, the company has been offering a delivery service since the summer of 2004. You can see the product list on the internet and order by email. To encourage people to return the cool boxes, made of cardboard and with a sheep wool liner, free of charge by post, you are given a credit. They are proud of another aspect of packaging too, namely the very light weighted plastic packs with handles in which milk is sold. The packs are made partly of chalk and are produced by the Swedish company Ecolean.

More than 80 % of the product range (consisting of more than 1000 items) are produced on Daylesford’s two farms or are manufactured for the company under the brand Daylesford Organic. The company pays a great deal of attention to its image as an exclusive brand, but it  is also insistent that its products should be affordable for the general public. Farm visits are a regular feature and seminars are held on special topics. Both the media and the public are impressed by the consistency of content and style that characterises the farms, the production units and the stores. There is an article in  this or that magazine just about every week. A short time ago, both Time Magazine and the Financial Times reported on Daylesford Organic.

Daylesford Organic:

2002
November: Daylesford OrganicFarm shop in Daylesford/Gloucestershire opened

2004
March: Garden shop  Daylesford Organic ‘The Garden’ opened in Daylesford
Summer: Delivery service started
October: Bramford Barn opened

2005
April: Daylesford Organic concession in Selfridges Department Store in London opened
September: Daylesford Organic Café in Sloane Square opened

2006
September: Garden shop  Daylesford Organic ‘The Garden’ opened in London at Clifton Nurseries
December: Daylesford Organic food shop opened at Clifton Nurseries

2007
February: Daylesford Organic food shop and café opened in Pimlico Road in London
April: Daylesford Organic "The Butcher" opened in the organic supermarket Planet Organic in London; Daylesford Organic Café opened at Clifton Nurseries in London
May: ‘The Garden’ opened in Pimlico Road in London