Community News

Heart of the community

Some retailers will go the ‘extra mile’ for their customers. Dave Beese who owns the Budgens in Southam, Warwickshire went the ‘extra 135 miles’ for one of his customers just before Christmas.

When Dave heard the plight of one of his regular customers, Sheila, in the run up to the festive period he stepped in to help.

Sheila had ordered a diabetic Christmas cake from a local supplier, but was let down at the last minute when the cake arrived, just four days before Christmas, and wasn’t suitable for diabetics.

Dave knew of a confectioner who made Christmas cakes and could produce the necessary diabetic version in time for Christmas, but they wouldn’t be able to deliver it in time. So, not wanting to let any of his customers down, Dave left his Budgens store in Southam to make the 135 mile round to Telford to pick up the cake.

Heart of the community

Simon Tiensa who owns the Budgens in Faringdon rallied his staff to dress in traditional costumes to support the local community’s annual ‘heritage day’.

The town hosted such things as ghost walks, history walks and photo displays while the local Budgens offered free tastings of products along with free cups of coffee, soup, crisps and biscuits to customers. They even had a live band, ‘Blazing Saddles’, playing in the store to entertain shoppers.

Comments placed on the Faringdon website were really supportive, including such things as ‘Budgens were great – they really made a huge effort’ and ‘The town really came together from the leisure centre pumping up balloons to the fantastic day in Budgens’.

Says Simon: “We had a great time and after putting in the effort it makes it all worthwhile when you get comments like this.”

British Food Fortnight Celebrations
Budgens retailers get behind the British Food Fortnight campaign

Once again Budgens was the proud sponsor of British Food Fortnight (19 September – 4 October). Many of our retail partners took the opportunity to link up with their local primary schools with our Budgens bunting design competition, while many also ran their own activities, teaming up with local suppliers for tastings and even Red Tractor.

We take a look at some of the great activities that took place in Budgens stores over the British Food Fortnight.

Warner’s Budgens – Bidford, Moreton in Marsh and Broadway
Following on from last year’s success, both the Budgens stores in Bidford and Moreton in Marsh, owned by Guy Warner, contacted Red Tractor again to have the famous red tractor parked outside the stores during British Food Fortnight to act as a ‘crowd puller’.

Raffles were held at both stores too to win a ‘harvest hamper’. Needless to say the hampers were packed with locallyproduced fruit and vegetables, supplied by local producers. The Bidford store raised over £200 for the children’s charity CLIC (Warner’s Budgens has now raised over £10,000 for CLIC in the last 18 months).

The store at Moreton in Marsh raised £200 for the Shalon Children’s Home, Bukavu, Congo, a charity supported by Ella Warner, Guy Warner’s daughter. Adds Lucy Worrall, marketing manager for Warner’s Budgens: “We also held tastings at Moreton, Bidford and Broadway throughout the fortnight, with the majority of tastings taking place over the Friday, Saturday and Sundays of both weekends. Many local producers brought their own stock to sample and it was a great success. And what’s really exciting is that we’ve seen a clear increase in sales on our large locally supplied range of products.”

She adds: “British Food Fortnight is a great way for our customers to see exactly what Warner’s Budgens is all about.... supporting British producers, but in particular local producers. Our local producers also see it as a great way of talking directly to customers and telling their own story.”

Budgens, Newbury
Budgens Newbury visited their local St Bart’s school to judge their cookery competition for British Food Fortnight.

The school had a chef from Aramark teaching them how to cook a dish and all the ingredients were supplied by Budgens, Newbury. The dish included plenty of fresh vegetables to create a tomato and beetroot salsa with light chilli dressing – ingredients included vine ripe tomatoes, fresh beetroot, runner beans, red onions, baby spinach, rocket, sorrel, red chillies and olive oil.

Budgens, Lightwater
Mike Duffy of Budgens, Lightwater held a community fayre to support British Food Fortnight. Says Mike: “We had dancers, craft stalls and some of our local food partners who happily donated samples and tasters. A special mention must go to Secretts Farm who gave away some fabulous fresh produce.”

Budgens, Stoneleigh
Budgens, Stoneleigh, owned by Kanna Mahunda, linked up with the local primary school to run the Budgens bunting competition, then held a prize giving at the store, for relations and friends to come along. Says Kanna: “So many people turned up that we couldn’t fit them all inside the store!).

The local mayor, Jan Mason, came along to make the presentations and gave a rousing speech, praising Budgens for promoting healthy eating. Adds Kanna: “The little ones were in awe of her! It was a fantastic end to the British Food Fortnight.”

  

09/06/09

Budgens ‘Feast of fun’ to raise money for Helen and Douglas House

Last week the Budgens in Northcourt Road, Abingdon, owned by Sarah Lloyd, partnered with local suppliers to host a ‘feast of fun’ to raise money for Helen and Douglas House, the local children’s charity.

Throughout the week, local producers and small family-owned businesses including Field Farm Fresh, Crustys Bakery, Emma’s Country Cakes and Soupery were sampling their products.

What’s more, all these suppliers will be donating 5% of their total sales in the store throughout the week to Helen and Douglas House.

Last year the shop launched a ‘pennies for plastic’ campaign, donating 1p to Helen and Douglas House every time a customer didn’t use a new carrier bag.

Says Sarah: “This week we’re just taking our support a step further, teaming up with local producers and Helen and Douglas House. We care deeply about the quality and value of the food sold in our store and the community that we serve.”

Sarah and her team were joined by volunteers from Helen and Douglas House who were helping with bag packing. There were goodie bags for customers to take away too, plus a raffle throughout the week.