While Kent’s Macknade food hall has firm roots in the past, it has ambitions to help develop the future of independent retail.
The business can trace its origins to 1847, when Frederick Neame and his family began farming land in Faversham, becoming one of the region’s leading fruit and vegetable suppliers.
In 1979, a pick-your-own operation was launched on the farm by Frederick’s great-great granddaughter Patricia Neame and her husband Renato Cuomo.
“The pick-your-own trend had come out of the US,” explains their son Stefano Cuomo, Macknade’s current CEO. “A lot of younger farmers were looking to the US in the 1970s and seeing what was coming out of there.”
Over the following decades, the focus of the business shifted towards retail. In 2001, the family stopped farming altogether.
“My parents helped drive that next wave of farming and retail as we gave the farm up completely and stuck to the retail side of it, and then it has evolved over the past 40 years,” says Cuomo.
Today, Macknade sits on a seven-acre site dominated by its 10,000 sq ft food hall.
lt includes a substantial greengrocery offering local seasonal fruit and veg alongside produce bought from Covent Garden and imported from across the Continent.
Macknade’s ambient grocery selection, meanwhile, includes local lines as well as international and specialist artisan products.
“We’re seeing more of what we called the dual shopping list grocery shopper,” says Cuomo. “They’ve got their supermarket list and an independent list, and if we don’t stock a core item – let’s say Stokes mayonnaise – that started in independents and is now in supermarkets, it can move to the supermarket list. As a result, it is important that we are clear on what we are stocking.”
Delicatessen is a key element of the business, with around 20m of serve-over counter that includes more than 300 cheeses direct from producers and wholesalers.
“Kent is not historically a dairy county but over the past 10 to 15 years has developed some cracking cheeses, so we have Kentish cheeses through to British cheeses through to Continental,” Cuomo says.
He adds that charcuterie is an interesting category, with more British products appearing in a market traditionally dominated by Continental producers.
“With Continental charcuterie, you’ve got producers with fantastic skills, but the base product might be a high-volume production pork. In the UK the quality of the actual charcuterie-making has some way to go, I think, but the base product being used is elevated.”
When it comes to butchery, the business is focused on using the whole carcass and supporting regenerative farming techniques. It works with the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association, which aims to bring together British farmers and butchers committed to delivering certified 100% grass-fed meat.
Cuomo is keen for such an approach to meat supply to become more mainstream. “I see our sector as an important step that can engage consumers and build critical mass that then allows it to become larger.”
‘We will work with a restaurant or another butcher who hasn’t got enough critical mass themselves but wants to go down the regenerative route’
Macknade now butchers several whole carcasses a week and will split them with other businesses.
“We will work with a restaurant or another butcher who hasn’t got enough critical mass themselves but wants to go down the regenerative route. If you get business together they can break a carcass down into parts.”
Cuomo feels such partnerships will help promote the use of regenerative farming processes. “It’s fantastic to get these independent farmgate sales but the real game changer will be moving much bigger supply chains into this.”
He sees Macknade as having a role to play by educating consumers about meat supply. “We’re pushing the narrative around how, with beef, for example. There are different ways of producing meat protein and the impacts that has,” he says. “That is a core part of what we do. It’s not just about margin; it’s about how we help shift the narrative around particular supply chains.”
Beyond the main food hall, Macknade operates a café, a wine shop offering a wide range of local tipples, and a food village where business partners supply a range of food and drink, including cocktails, Mexican and South Asian cuisine.
Recently, Cuomo brought in tenants such as a veterinary practice and fitness classes, as he looks to develop Macknade’s role as a community hub.
“The supermarkets have just got to deliver margin for their shareholders, so you’re seeing a real opportunity not only in changing the narrative around food and drink, but community hubs that are proper commercial entities and have activities occurring around them that bring people together,” he explains.
“For me, it is adding in activities that align themselves with a premium food and drink experience, and I think wellness fits into that particularly well.”
‘Baby boomers have cash in their pockets, are loyal, but often get overlooked’
He has also been thinking a lot about transport to the shop, and believes electric bikes could have a big role to play. The business has been promoting itself to cyclists by making people aware it is on cycle routes, and it has partnered with an e-bike retailer to hold events on site, enabling people to take test rides.
One reason for promoting e-bikes is to attract shoppers aged 60-plus who may have moved out of Faversham and into surrounding areas.
“They don’t want to drive and they don’t want to use a pedal bike but they are only two miles away from the town and an electric bike is a fantastic solution,” says Cuomo.
“In the food sector everyone chases a trend but what you want is consistency and there’s no sector that does it better than the baby boomers. They have cash in their pockets, they’re loyal, but often get overlooked because they’re not seen as the trend.”
He will be looking to expand Macknade beyond Faversham in the future, although an attempt to develop a second site had to be aborted in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Cuomo feels the next stage for the business will be looking at opportunities to be part of reshaping retail. “London is interesting because you’re getting a lot of development going on with that village concept,” he says, pointing to the redevelopment of Kings Cross with new public streets, squares and gardens and the Coal Drops Yard shopping area.
“What gels a community is regular grocery retail, and it is very difficult to do outside of the supermarkets,” he says. “The independent butchers and bakers are great, but actually having a town piazza, with the town hall and a grocery hub is very interesting.
“This next stage, I think, is looking what models can really challenge the future of grocery retail.”
For Cuomo, future retail developments will go hand-in-hand with recognition of the skills of retail staff, something highlighted by the business winning a Farm Shop & Deli Retailer Award at this year’s Farm Shop & Deli Show.
The process of entering the awards gave him a chance to reflect on what the business has achieved and highlighted how important staff across Macknade are to its success, he says, adding: “People often don’t realise what skills they have. A barista may think they just make coffee, but they make really good coffee and understand where the bean comes from. And on the tills, there is the customer engagement of knowing that person and what they like.”
He feels winning the award allows individuals to take time and reflect on their own skills, and to consider that they have skills others don’t.
“We’re a family business and I feel very blessed having that network around and what that has given me, but also in the idealised sense of what a family should do is create a space that’s safe that encourages people to achieve their aspirations.”
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