Case Study - Val and Terry Barrs and Richard Parrott
Val and Terry Barrs and Richard Parrott did not have to go far to find the franchise of their dreams – it was right next door.
Like many middle-aged couples whose children have grown up they longed to start their own business together after years of working for large companies.
They had looked at many options, including selling up their home to buy and run a gift shop in the West Country, but in the end they found exactly what they were looking for much closer to home – their next-door neighbour was selling his Wiltshire Farm Foods franchise to move to Spain.
Wiltshire Farm Foods, head office, which is based in Trowbridge, has developed high quality, ready-made frozen meals, which are delivered to private homes and can be prepared in minutes using a microwave or a conventional oven.
Setting up the business was quite straight forward. They needed a refrigeration unit to store the food and refrigerated vans for deliveries. They receive help from Wiltshire Farm Foods head office in marketing, and inherited an existing customer base in areas covering Coventry and a large part of Warwickshire.
Val, 56 continues: “I’d worked for Tesco for 16 years and Terry was an engineer for most of his working life. We made a conscious decision, once we had bought this business to improve the quality of our working life and to be able to run a business together has enabled us to achieve this.”
Val runs the office and speaks to her customers on a regular basis when they call to place their orders. While Terry delivers to customers homes, so it’s no surprise the couple have become a friend to so many of their regulars.
Val says: “We even visited one lady on Christmas Day because we knew she would be on her own. And another lady called in tears after we had sent her a birthday card and a small gift – it was the only present and card she’d received.”
The couple’s drivers regularly run errands for customers and on several occasions they have made very timely arrivals to customers!
Val remembers: “One gentleman requires oxygen to relieve his breathing problems and our driver arrived to discover the man had run out of oxygen and was struggling to breathe. The driver, Paul, rang round to get another oxygen bottle and waited with the gentleman until it arrived and made sure he was okay. The customer telephoned me later to say ‘thank you for saving his life’.”
Another driver Steve arrived to make his first-ever delivery to a house to find the customer, an elderly lady, had fallen over. He rang for an ambulance and stayed with her until it arrived.
Says Val: “As well as being a good business which we intend to keep on growing, it’s like being part of an extended family.”
In fact, they have become such good friends that they bought a weekend retreat in the south of their territory, near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, where on their days off they often visit their customers.
