Riverford Organic Farmers

BACKGROUND
Riverford Organic is an organic farm and veg-box delivery company supplying seasonal produce directly to around households weekly.
The company is employee-owned and is committed to championing ethical and sustainable farming, and the hard-working people who grow the fruit and veg on our plates.

OBJECTIVE
Our work is fundamentally tied to the overall business goal of growing the Riverford business in order to increase the positive impact it can have on the world.

From a comms perspective we have two core goals:

– Raise the overall profile of the brand among potential consumers
– Build trust among consumers by highlighting Riverford’s ongoing activism

ACTIVITY
Our work in the last year or so has included:

– Continuing Riverford’s activist work as the award-winning #GetFairAboutFarming campaign was once again discussed in Parliament. Following our media outreach, over 3,000 letters were sent by members of the public to their MPs to support Riverford’s proposal for a better, more joined-up regulator.

– Supporting the brand through the launch of their ‘Well Travelled Veg’ campaign, to raise awareness of how supermarket fruit and veg staples often travel up to 8x the distance of Brits on their summer holidays, before ending up on UK dinner plates.

– Promoting the 20th anniversary of The Riverford Field Kitchen, their on site restaurant at Riverford’s farm in Devon. We championed the restaurant as a pioneer of the British restaurant scene through a series of listings releases, press/influencer invites, and spokespeople profiling.

– A dedicated profiling and thought leadership programme for the brand’s founder, Guy Singh Watson.

RESULTS
Maintaining a regular cadence of coverage across our press office, we secured over 250 pieces of coverage for Riverford in just six months, 23 of which were published in prominent nationals, alongside five dedicated broadcast profiles.

Coverage highlights included a double page spread in The Guardian newspaper following an interview with Riverford’s founder, titled “Veg box millionaire with gift for going against the grain” – a ‘money can’t buy’ headline. Guy’s interview was also the most read story across the Guardian.co.uk website on the day it was published.

This piece led to a spike in sales, with Riverford recording 360 vegetable box subscriptions that Sunday. The previous Sunday they had 16 – a 2,150% uplift.

Other hero coverage included a 10-minute BBC broadcast segment dedicated to the brand’s story, alongside pieces in The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Standard, Mail Online, The Independent, The Express, LBC, Sky News and The Grocer.

Antonia Paget, Senior Account Director says: “It can sometimes be difficult to measure the value of PR, but our work for Riverford shows the tangible impact it can have on a business. Not just on improving brand perception, SEO or share of voice, but delivering a sharp spike in sales. As well as securing public buy-in to Riverford’s activism with thousands of letters sent to MPs.”