Cannon Hall Farm Case Study

Cannon Hall Farm is an award-winning working farm near Barnsley in the UK Pennines.

For hundreds of years it had been the Home Farm to the Cannon Farm Estate, providing food for the owners and staff. The farm has existed, in various guises, for over 350 years.

In the 1980s it became clear to its owners that it must diversify beyond simple farming in order to survive.

From the addition of tearooms, to opening the farm for public visits, to adding children's playgrounds and retail premises, the business has spent the last 30 years adding supplementary business streams to continue to sell to both existing and new customer bases.

Cannon Hall Farm have tapped into the lucrative and growing market for family and more specifically children's activity days. They currently charge £18 ($30) for a family ticket to the farm, plus parking charges of around £3 ($5). They welcome over 40,000 school children to the farm every year and host birthday parties.

In a nutshell:

The core business had been farming and sale of product (product)

Strategic thinking led to Cannon Hall Farm's businesses being:

1) Continuation of the prior core business of farming and sale of product (product)

2) Introduction of leisure day out around farming experience, plus play areas (service)

3) Tea rooms for visitors to the farm (product and service)

4) Retail of produce from the farm plus items sourced elsewhere (product)

Cannon Hall Farm welcome over 250,000 paying visitors every year and make use of excellent marketing tactics (a recent example being the promotion of late night / overnight opening hours to watch farm animals giving birth) to drive repeat business.