Honister Slate Mine Case Study

Honister Slate Mine near Keswick in the English Lake District is a slate excavation site with hundreds of years of history.

After a period of near inactivity at the mine, it was sold on to local entrepreneur Mark Weir in 1998.

The core business of the mine had been the excavation and sale of slate for use in construction of buildings locally and further afield.

Mark Weir restarted the former core business while also adding additional business streams based around the mine. These included the production of artisan products using slate from the mine (such as house name / number signs, coasters and wine racks) which were sold on individually to end users; the creation of a tourist attraction around the mine providing mine tours to 60,000 visitors in one year alone and access to a Via Ferrata metal climbing ladder on a cliff face; construction of an on-site cafe targeting walkers and visitors to the tourist attraction.

Had Mark Weir simply undertaken a campaign of marketing tactics he would have sought markets for the wholesale slate from his mines. By instead focusing on strategy he was able to reach out to completely new market segments, move from a product business to a product and service one and redefine the industry within which he was operating.

In a nutshell:

The core business had been the excavation of slate for sale to the construction industry (product, B2B)

Strategic thinking led to Honister's businesses being:

1) Continuation of the prior core business of excavation of slate for sale to the construction industry (product, B2B)

2) Excavation of slate to create artisan products (coasters, wine racks, house signs) which were sold on individually to end users (value-added product, B2C)

3) Creation of a tourist attraction on site offering guided tours of mines and the Via Ferrata cliff face climbing ladder (service, B2C)

4) Construction of an on-site cafe targeting walkers and visitors to the tourist attraction (product and service, B2C)

As a postscript to this case study, Mark Weir tragically died earlier this year but the Honsiter business continues in his memory.