Name of your website?Lewis Fine Foods
Your name?
Victoria Lewis
Your Location (city, etc)
Pyle, Bridgend
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We are a family run traditional bakery specialising in traditional Welsh produce of the highest qualiity, using the best ingredients which are sourced locally where possible. We sell our produce through our own retail outlet in Pyle, at Farmers' markets throughout Wales, and to the trade. We also provide a catering and buffet service.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
Iniutially, we were looking to increase trade through our own retai outlet and also through wholesale. I am now looking to launch a Welsh cake gift box, containing our signature products (Welshcakes, Bara Brith and Welsh butter shortbread) to be sold via the website, with the aim of selling to Welshies worldwide!
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
This is our very first website.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
The website and business have the same name.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
There are very few offerings along the same lines. We are a unique company selling a unique product, and we wanted the web site to represent this.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
The eventual goal is to hand the business on to a fourth generation someday!
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Family-run busines often comes with problems of its own, but the personal investment that we have made means that there is always someone as commited as you are to help out in any situation. Vast amounts of time, and a fair bit of money have been invested in the business over the years, and we feel the measure of our success is evident in that the third generation of the family is now having their chance to add further to the business and to help it continue to develop in years to come.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
A second, larger retail outlet would be first on the list, with facilities to provide tea rooms and a farm-shop so that we could showcase more of the best off Welsh food from our fellow farmers' marketeers.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Probably not. We pride ourselves on the quality of our handmade produce. We would not compromise quality for anything.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
REfridgeration in a very busy and exceedingly hot bakery in the busy Summer months always causes a problem. Packaging costs for a small business can easily escalate too.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Modernising the company and dragging it into the 21st century!
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
We are still only just starting out and are just beginning the marketing drive.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
There is a lot more detail than I first expected and I have had to call on outsidfe help. The detail and planning needed for creating an online shop for a food product is enormous, with such concerns as transportation and shelf-life.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
We have only just begun with the site and hope that it is going to continue to grow with us for the forseeable future.
What is your website address?
Lewis Fine Foods
