THE LECKFORD ESTATE, the Waitrose farm in Hampshire, has opened the doors to its new farm shop for the first time this week setting the scene for a new trend in the food industry.
Selling over 1,000 products, the shop will focus on high quality locally and regionally sourced products.
Known as ‘The Farm Shop, Leckford Estate’, the 165 square metre shop has created 20 new jobs.
The Estate has worked with Taste of the South East and Hampshire Fare to identify high quality local producers and has already established relationships with over 60 suppliers from the area, helping to boost the local and regional food economy.
Situated in Leckford on the River Test, the 4000 acre Estate is a working farm producing arable crops, including rapeseed for the farm’s own rapeseed oil and high quality bread making wheat which is used to make a range of flour.
The farm also supplies milk, apples, pears, apple juice, cider and chestnut mushrooms as well as Leckford free range chickens which are already sold in Waitrose branches.
Iain Dalton, Head of Leckford Estate, says: “Waitrose is in a very fortunate position to have its own farm, and the new shop, which is totally unique for Waitrose, can showcase not just the food produced on the Estate, but allow outstanding local and regional food producers to flourish. The shop will sell the highest quality food and if something proves popular, there is the potential for it to be sold more widely.”
