Thomas Kitchen-Dunn

Lamb2Ewe, Yorkshire

Lamb2Ewe was created by school friends Thomas Kitchen-Dunn and Jack Bostock.

Tom bought five sheep from Jack (a professional shepherd) with the view to proving his farming grandad that there was still money to be made in farming. And he has succeeded.

They set out to sell lamb boxes with nationwide delivery, with Tom building the company website and providing the marketing skills, leaving Jack to build relationships with other farmers to help when supplies were low.

Early success led to a venture into the Christmas turkey market, and now Lamb2Ewe offers a variety of different meats from Saddleback pork to Aberdeen Angus beef and chicken pies. Customers can also build their own boxes online.

The Lamb2Ewe website clearly shows the boys’ commitment to animal welfare and they guarantee their customers 100% non-religiously slaughtered meat which has turned out to be a very successful unique selling point.

“Facebook has played a huge roll in growing our business with continued growth from 500 page likes in January 2019 to almost 1,500 today. We also regularly engage on Facebook groups and discuss animal welfare and sustainability,” Tom explains.

“75% of our sales come through Facebook with our website handling all of our orders. We have recently opened a phone line order system to make it easier for our older customers as well as adding a link to Amazon, so people can use their logins to place an order.”

Tom believes a key measure of success has been the re-order rate from their customers. 50 per cent of the company revenue is from 30 per cent of customers, with several of them spending close to £1,000 each since January.

“We have even sold to vegetarians who commend our animal welfare and ethics. Although they don’t eat the meat themselves, they buy it in for their families.”

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The judges said about Thomas: Lamb2Ewe completely understand their market and have adopted their digital approach to target them.  The use of analytics and data has improved his business performance and he has clearly  identified future digital challenges and has already implemented them to improve user experience and boost sales.

On winning, Thomas said: “I can’ quite believe we have won, and to win this prize in such a fantastic category is absolutely brilliant. It is hugely important to connect with people about the food they’re eating and, like it or not, technology is something we all need to get on board with. I’d urge everyone to get involved and get in front of a camera to market their produce. Everyone is in great spirits and it has been a fantastic evening.”