shelf talk
Driven by ethos, not EpoS Cowdray Farm Shop reflects the ‘healthy, natural and fair’ ethos of its titled owner as much as the point-of-sale data coming from its tills. Newly installed manager Rupert Titchmarsh tells us how this delicate balance is struck.
I
’ve met Rupert Titchmarsh maybe a dozen times over the last decade, first as owner of Harrogate’s Tartufo deli and more recently as brand manager for distributor Hider Foods. A sensible sort of chap, he’s always chosen his words with care when I’ve had a notebook in my hand. Never more so than today, however, when he’s eight months into perhaps the most prestigious gig of his career. Since February, Titchmarsh has been farm shop manager at Cowdray Park Estate in West Sussex. Owned by Michael and Marina Pearson – aka The Viscount and Viscountess Cowdray – this is the largest private
56
estate in southern England, with 16,500 acres of prime land in the South Downs National Park. The farm shop itself, just outside the market town of Midhurst on the busy east-west A272, was set up in 2008 in a converted stable block. Initially a slow burner, it really took off around 2013 under the management of ex-Whole Foods Market and Wyevale food buyer Katie Cordle – who is Lady Cowdray’s niece – getting into The Times’ Top 20 UK farm shops and the Telegraph’s top five. Last year, turnover for the store and its 45-cover café (which seats a further 45 outside in summer) was £2.3m and it’s slated to hit
October-November 2016 | Vol.17 Issue 9
£2.5m soon. “We’ve got some fairly ambitious plans to rejig things,” says Titchmarsh, when we settle down to talk at one of the none-too-cheap hardwood café tables in the shop’s courtyard. These plans include more indoor café space, a bigger, more prominent butcher’s counter and more Cowdray own-brand lines. This is a fine looking store, helped along by its classic halftimbered exterior and the deep yellow Cowdray Estate paint that’s familiar to anyone in the area. Inside, it’s not over-designed, very definitely still a farm shop and, with the exception of a non-food gifts section, much less “boutique” than you might expect. Stand-out features include a sizeable cheese counter that features some beyond-the-norm British and Continental varieties, from Somerset’s Wellesley goats’ cheese to Italy’s raw milk Blu di Zibibbo. Most of the Brits come from Neal’s Yard Dairy, which also trains Cowdray’s counter staff.
Deli of the Month INTERVIEW BY MICK WHITWORTH
The butcher’s is core to the business, majoring on lamb and beef from estate farms. Venison, from fallow and roe deer stalked on the estate, is a big seasonal feature, and there’s growing emphasis on addedvalue meats for quick suppers. The farm shop café, meanwhile, has a breakfast and lunch menu that combines the local (Cowdray rump steak, or Welsh rarebit with Sussex Charmer cheese) with the healthy (like a ‘superfood’ salad including quinoa, sprouting lentil and Hollyhock yeast dressing). Coffee comes from Monmouth in London, which also trains Cowdray’s baristas. The café kitchen doubles as a