Bovine intervention – the family farming and tourism business that keeps on growing! How the Toms and the Turneys have made Tapnell Farm into an award winning success. Tom Stroud finds out more
In so many ways, Tapnell Farm is the Isle of Wight in microcosm. With an agricultural heritage that has grown to include accommodation and now day tourism, it’s an example of 21st century thinking too, with smart branding and an environmental sensitivity.
“We definitely feel that we’re capturing the zeitgeist,” says partner Tom Honeyman Brown. “The combination of farm stays, rural settings and informal surroundings seems to hit the mark at the moment and we’re lucky enough to have such a beautiful place to do it all. We’ve managed to build some momentum over the past year and we’re excited about what’s coming next.”
The 400 acre farm has been in the Turney family since the 1980s. It’s now a fully diversified working farm, with up to 60 people employed throughout the year, which swells to almost a hundred working on site in the summer. The work is varied, from rearing young stock for dairy to growing arable crops for renewables. As any recent visitor will know, the Turney’s also diversified into tourism with overnight accommodation and day attractions, centred around food and active, educational play for all the family.
Andrew Turney is the head of the family. He bought the farm four decades ago and he’s still playing an active role in the reinvention of the business.
“He’s always been forward thinking and pushing us towards new ideas,” his son Tom Turney explains. “He’d always foreseen that dairying was a declining industry on the island and the question had always been at the back of our minds – ‘what do we do with this amazing farm’? It was a question of being ready for when dairying came to an end.”
Tom returned to the farm from London and moved into accommodation in 2012, establishing Tom’s Eco Lodge, inspired by the success of hiring out holiday cottages on the farm site. From that he moved into tents too, and with five lodges, two cabins, two pods, Tapnell Manor house and two other holiday lets, the farm was soon hosting up to 100 people at any one time.
“It’s easy to take things for granted,” Tom explains. “Coming here from the city you really appreciate the great experience, the fresh air and how great the Island is. The accommodation idea grew from there, with occupancy going up to 90%.”
Enter another Tom. Tom Turney was joined in the business by his brother in-law, Tom Honeyman Brown, who had been working for the Garlic Farm for five years, with a background in restaurants and catering. A plan was hatched.
The name of the new attraction was the subject of many long discussions around the family dining table, going through many logos and domain names, eventually settling on a simple emblematic name. In January 2015 the Toms’ launched the Cow Company, converting an old swiss barn to a restaurant, which opened in June, along with the gallery gift shop. The Cow Company was quickly followed by the play barn.
“It’s been very fluid and our plans have changed, based on customer feedback,” Tom Honeyman Brown explains. “We’re a relatively small business so we’re fairly fleet of foot. We can adapt and change. In a sense we’re not doing anything new – good pubs are already doing it, providing great food and options for play. It’s a fantastic formula. We opened a year ago, when the Island was at its busiest and we were too busy. We misjudged the demand and we were struggling to keep up. It’s an amazing problem to have, but we learnt from that, over the course of the summer.”
Keen to provide something for all the family, the site works as a hub, with Wight Cycle Hire, Isle of Wight Adventure Activities and Clay Pigeon Shooting all on offer to visitors. “It’s about strength through numbers, bringing people here, and once they’re here, keeping them here for as long as possible,” Tom says.
Tapnell Farm has environmental credentials too. It’s a net exporter of solar energy, supplying enough energy for hundreds of homes. The Turneys are also partners in an anaerobic digester scheme in Arreton which will provide thousands of houses with renewable gas.
“It’s a farming mentality,” Tom Turney explains. “It’s the idea of leaving the land in a better state than you found it, always investing in it. We’re looking at more renewable energy and we have that in our minds for all of the decisions that we make. It’s a holistic approach and that applies to staff too, growing a business sustainably.”
It’s an approach that has won awards. Tapnell Farm Accomodation picked up the Green Award at the 2015 Isle of Wight Chamber Business Awards. Tom’s Eco Lodge was also named Self Catering Holiday Provider of the Year, picking up the Gold trophy in Tourism South East’s Beautiful South awards.
“It’s great recognition for our team, to be named as outstanding in their field. It’s also a chance to look at the business, be honest and critique it. There’s a benchmark aspect and it’s the only way to improve, by pitching yourself against the best in the business. There’s a lot to learn from everyone else,” Tom Turney says.
The Tapnell Farm team are highly ambitious. The financial investment in recent years has obviously been considerable but Tom Honeyman Brown plays it down.
“The only thing that matters is whether it’s good value for our customers. Our prices and our offering are based solely on that. Everything that happens behind the scenes is then up to us, to make it work. We’re moulding the experience around our own values and that’s really exciting. I’ve got three kids and we eat in the restaurant here all of the time. We’re always in the play barn. They’re all things that we enjoy doing and that’s really important.
“We’re lucky on the Island that we have a lot of great tourism businesses that are also constantly improving their offering. Off The Rails in Yarmouth, the Red Lion in Freshwater, the Hut in Colwell Bay and the Garlic Farm are brilliant places to eat. Blackgang Chine and Robin Hill are hugely successful but that success translates into making their offering better every year and that’s really important.”
Currently around a third of Tapnell Farm’s day visitors are tourists. During term time the Cow Company restaurant opens Wednesdays to Sundays. The farm park will be open 363 days of the year and accommodation bookings are being taken all year round. Even on Christmas Day there will be up to 100 people staying on site.
“We live here, on-site, and we want to provide something that is fundamentally for Islanders, who live here 12 months of the year,” Tom Honeyman Brown says. “Islanders are the people that will keep on coming back and give the place its personality and character. We want to continue to grow and to be complementary to the other Island businesses too. We want to be able to build a team here, with managerial roles and full time employment all year round. We think we can make it work and we’re here for the long term. In five years from now we want to have contributed to raising the bar for tourism on the Isle of Wight.”
First published in the June 2016 issue of Island Business Magazine.
