Episode 6 The Farm Fixer

Small family farms are in trouble...

This hasn't seen any action for a while.

Business consultant Nick Hewer is going back

to his Northern Irish roots to help them diversify

and make radical changes, before they go under.

What can you do with 17 acres?

But are the farmers ready for his advice?

I'm not a farming guru with all the answers,

but having observed many companies over more than 40 years,

what I can offer is a great big dollop of common sense.

This series follows eight local farms embarking on a long term fight for survival.

-You're not turning bookings down, are you?

-There will be tough decisions...

That source will pump for ever and a day.

And they're going to sell it?!

But doing nothing is not an option...

-End of a long day, and for me, a depressing day.

-OK.

This week, Nick is on his way to see Mike and Rhonda Nurse.

They own a 40 acre farm in Lisdillon, County Londonderry.

For the last six years, they've been farming sheep and cattle.

But all that is about to change.

I have some Limousine cattle and crossbreed breeding sheep.

We're going to sell them all off to finance our new project.

An ex-show jumper, Mike's first love is horses.

He used to own horse yards in Scotland, and now he wants to build an equestrian centre

in Northern Ireland, with tourist accommodation attached.

Nick Hewer has been called in to help get the project off the ground.

He's been with horses all his life. There's nothing he doesn't know.

But what about business? Because after all, what have they got?

They've got 40 acres and some old barns.

And the challenge, by the beginning of the next tourist season,

they've got a running and profitable concern.

We do have a lot of experience in the equine business,

but we don't have experience within the tourism business.

-Mike?

-Mr Hewer, it's a pleasure to meet you.

-How are you?

-It's a pleasure to meet you.

-This is Rhonda? How are you?

-Pleased to meet you.

-Who's this?

-This is Lawrie, my son.

-Hello, Lawrie.

-And this is Cassie.

-How do you do?

-And our mum, Nancy.

-This is Mum?

-Pleased to meet you.

-How are you?

-All right.

-Are you keeping them under control?

Yes!

Nick's got eight months to help establish the equestrian centre.

Today he's accompanied by his dog, Jasmine.

The first job is to get a sense of the scale of the task ahead.

So, what's happening here?

What we're doing here, Nick, is this was our former dairy.

We've ripped it all out and we've got it ready in preparation now to start to build all our stables.

-Hm-hmm.

-So our first set of 15 stables will go in here.

And directly behind us here will be the first cottage that we're going to build.

-That'll be a cottage?

-That will be the first stage of the cottage.

Right. Had you in mind to pop a window in there?

I think we might put one or two windows in, just to...

You've got a wonderful view. Yeah, promise me you'll put a big window in!

I'll put a big window in, yeah!

That view is fabulous. I can see that as the sort of opening page

on your website. Have you got a website yet?

Definitely.

No, that's something that's on the agenda. We have to build a website.

Build that, yeah. It's not all you've got to build!

So when's number one coming on stream, do you reckon?

We're going to start this in the second week of September.

-OK.

-The building work will start.

When would you aim to open, you know, for the first paying customer?

-Mid-April.

-Mid-April?

-About mid-April.

-You're missing Easter?

No, you can't miss Easter.

Do you think you can get him to get up earlier in the morning?!

Maybe I might have to set the alarm a bit earlier in the morning!

-I think so! Let's go for Easter.

-Mm-hmm.

Well, not really, because the clients that I have

that have booked into the cottage aren't coming until April.

But we could try and get early ones.

Yeah, yeah. It's a goal we could look at, actually.

Mike will have to get up at dawn.

Before the Nurses even begin work on the cottages,

they want to finish the stables and build a large indoor riding arena.

-Where's this indoor area?

-This is the indoor arena on the plan here.

This is the indoor...? OK. So we've got the three cottages.

-This one ready for next Easter. All being well.

-All being well.

And, you know, all three will be completed by when?

The other two cottages, Nick, are over a five year plan.

-Because?

-Well, there's no massive deadline push at this stage.

-Yeah.

I think what we've got here could be a sort of a David and Goliath task.

Mike being David and this huge project being Goliath.

My concern is that Goliath might win!

You know? He's got to get this lot done, by Easter.

And that really is pushing it. I hope he knows what he's up to!

The scale of the task ahead is not the only worry.

One important revenue stream for the Nurses will be

looking after other people's horses, known in the trade as livery.

Nick knows the equestrian industry has been hit hard

by the current economic climate, so as part of his research,

he's decided to go to another local riding yard

to see how they are holding up.

I really want to find out whether the local market is as buoyant as ever,

whether the recession is hitting business,

the cost of livery is going up or down,

is there pressure on margins?

How is the market here in Londonderry?

Is it on the up or is it stagnant?

-So you started off with a livery.

-Yep.

You've gone into the riding school because livery didn't pay, or...?

Livery, after the economic downturn,

we realised there wasn't as many new customers.

So livery is still a bit flat.

For us, I would say yes.

You've a lot of competition locally, very price-competitive.

What we do is DIY livery,

so we provide feed in the morning

and feed in the evening

and that's £30 a week.

Full livery, for a pony, would be £45

then for a horse, it would be £50

and then, because we're a riding school,

we also provide working livery.

This is not a particularly prosperous part of Ulster.

When you combine that with the fact

we're in the middle of a deep recession,

you can understand there's huge, huge pressure on prices.

Here in this stable, they're charging between £50 and £30 a week

but there are other stables locally

and quite a lot of them charging down to £12.50 per week for livery.

What does that tell us?

That they are entering a hugely competitive market.

Breaking into the local livery scene will be tough

and establishing tourist accommodation could take years.

Come on.

As Mike and Rhonda show Nick the site for the indoor arena,

Nick is praying there's at least part of this plan

that he can get excited about.

So how much are you going to charge on a weekly basis, full livery?

It would be between £50 and £60 a week for a full livery horse.

Expensive. Expensive. Because I've been snooping around

-and do you know something? Some of them are 50...

-Yep.

And then at the lower end, do you know, as low as £12.50 -

-not full, I accept that, DIY.

-DIY.

So OK, so suddenly, you're expensive...

We're only looking for a small proportion of that market,

a few livery horses.

Our main market drive is to be a training facility

for overseas clients,

the tourism side of our business with holidaymakers coming to train,

going to horse sales and all that involves.

We have two very large horse sales here, four times a year.

Why wouldn't they just stay in a hotel like anybody else?

Because they don't have an indoor arena or a horsebox

or somewhere to try the horse.

OK. Now you're making sense.

So that really is more of a sort of professional market?

-Yes.

-Tourism, fine. Now we've got a professional market.

-Absolutely.

-There's a niche there.

People coming to you with their horses

and with you and your indoor arena,

training for a particular event or schooling

-or whatever it is they're doing?

-Yep.

'Well, Mike surprised us.

'He's flown a rather juicy bone into the mix

'and it's called the professional market.'

That's a year-round business with lots to go for.

I like it. I like it a lot.

The professional riding market may be vital

but Nick is also convinced

the Nurses need to focus more energy on tourism.

Nick knows it could take years for all the cottages to be ready.

He's also convinced they can't afford to wait.

Luckily, he has a plan.

So, you want to turn your property here at Lisdillon Road

into an equestrian centre.

The heart of this operation is the horse,

but it beats very close to another heart, which says it's accommodation.

-Yes.

-OK.

Here's my problem.

I see the bottleneck as being the accommodation.

One small one now. If it goes, you're going to get busy,

and during the winter, hurry up and get another one and another one,

and at the end of it, you'll only have three.

Maybe you'll have six people in each.

-Now here's what I want you to look at.

-Yeah.

Kids love horses

and I know that you don't want to mess up your professional market

with a load of children, but in the summer months,

you might say, "The summer months are for my tourism market."

-OK?

-Yes...

I've only got one cottage.

What I want to do is to see how I could suddenly, like that,

accommodate 30 young people

-and to make it more exciting for them...

-Yes.

to, say, come to your equestrian centre

and live in a wigwam or a yurt.

I think they call it glamping.

-Glamping with horses.

-Yeah.

-It'd be very unique.

-It'd be brilliant.

-It'd be something the kid's never done before.

-That's right.

Tepees and other large tents

are becoming popular all over the UK and Ireland.

Combining them with children's summer riding camps

could provide a good injection of revenue

but the Nurses will need to start marketing soon

for all areas of their business.

On the professional market, I know you've already got contacts

and I think that at the moment,

you see, your clientele is all word-of-mouth

and people you've dealt with, so I think what we really need to do

is to sit down and look at the markets.

How to approach them, segment them,

decide which ones you're going to go for.

-Yeah.

-And get that website up and running.

-Yeah.

It's been just over a month since Nick was here

and work has now started

on preparing the field for the indoor arena.

Soon the build will begin in earnest

which means the time has come to start selling off the livestock.

After six years of building up his sheep and beef herds,

saying goodbye won't be easy.

You hold onto that wee rascal.

'It's taken a while to build them up'

and my daughters, they're very attached to them

and I love having sheep myself

so I think we'll always have some about us,

but we really have to sell all of them at this stage

to do the project.

Come on. Come on.

This evening, Mike has come to Lisahally Auction.

I'm getting too old to get in there!

It's taken years of planning

to get to the point when they're ready to start building.

Once the livestock are sold, there is no going back.

AUCTIONEER: Here for sale at 140. Do I have 140? Another one, 140...

140, 140. And...

I've a cheque in my hand, the first payment of the batch.

I've got another five sales to do and this is the first payment

and I'm thrilled to bits.

They made a fantastic price

and it'll really help towards the project.

It's November, and the arena is progressing.

The hardcore base is now down.

The shed will arrive in the next few weeks.

Nick is keen to keep the push on marketing

and he has an idea.

'So here's what I want you to do.'

I'll bring a group of potential summer campers up to see you

'and you show them a good time.

'Have some horses, show them how to ride, take them on a trek,'

and we'll take pictures for the website. Let's pray it's a good day

'and we'll get some great feedback by way of testimonials, yeah?'

-Yeah.

-Yeah, that sounds great.

It will give you a sense of what to expect

and also give you a sense of what obstacles you've got to overcome.

Yeah, I think it's a good idea.

-Why not?

-Yeah, we're up for that.

'OK, good. Well, let's do it.'

It's the day of the photo shoot.

Down the road, Nick has horses and riders

waiting to pose for promotional pictures.

Unfortunately, high December winds have affected progress on the arena

and it will not be possible to let them onto the farm today.

I was hoping we would have gone maybe a bit further,

which would've enabled us to bring the horses up

-but no, it's not ready, is it?

-No.

-This is big.

Is it 40 metres?

40 metres, 22 metres wide.

But not ready for the horses, but we've got a plan.

-We need to get those shots taken.

-Definitely.

And we have just the place for it.

The farm may still be a building site

but Nick is determined to plough ahead with the shoot.

Bring the back legs around, yeah?

Can you stand a wee bit closer to the horse?

He's arranged to use the grounds of a nearby hotel.

Nick's also enlisted the help

of professional photographer Elaine Hill.

Given the choice, who would take photographs for a brochure or website

on a day like this for a summer equestrian centre?

But we've got no choice. We need to do it now

to get that website, to get that material,

that promotional material up and running

-so we can start pulling in people for next summer.

-Good boy. Brilliant.

We also want to show Mike, actually, that there's not only urgency

but professionalism.

It's no good just throwing a couple of old snapshots up onto a website.

People trawl the web with their eyes, yeah?

You have to get them in five seconds or you've lost them forever.

Nick has also arranged for some shots around the city of Derry,

to attract the tourist market.

Despite the windy weather, the shoot has gone well.

The next stage of Nick's plan

is to get a website organised as quickly as possible.

So that's quite nice for a generic shot for the front of the website.

To help get Mike and Rhonda started,

he has enlisted the help of graphic designer Alistair MacFarlane.

That's a good-looking little pony, isn't it?

'There is no way that we're all going to come out of this today

'with a finished website.'

No, not at all.

Today's exercise, really,

is to establish the rough guidelines for a website

but more particularly,

to talk him into explaining

exactly what his target market - or markets - are,

because I think there are two markets

and I think he thinks there's only one.

Alistair has devised a front page of what will be an in-depth website,

so let's have a look at what you've been up to, Alistair.

OK, so this is a typical front page of a website

and you can obviously update this

and use it as a "Latest News" or certain posts.

Have a look at the Lisdillon identity up there.

This actually brings us to the point, Mike,

because you're a seasoned professional horseman,

ex-showjumper and all the rest of it.

-Yes.

-And you feel that that's your market

and to sort of sully it, in a sense,

with the sort of leisure side, the pony side,

would damage what you've striven to build up over the years. OK?

I want you to agree with me

-because it would be nice...

-OK!

..for you to say, "I want to embrace both of those markets."

-Good, OK.

-You happy with that?

-Yes.

-Really?

-It's what you want to do?

That cheers me up enormously

because what we've got, really, on the website at the moment

-is the sort of leisure side of it, haven't we?

-Yes.

And I would like to see both markets

and you can press a button and go into the professional market

or you can press another button and go into the leisure market.

-Absolutely.

-That's a good point.

Alistair's taken it a long way. It's got to be tidied up,

but don't let's drag our feet now

because we need to get that up and running on the web

and stand by a computer for e-mails

and indeed, by the phone for orders, yeah?

It's the new year.

The arena is not yet finished

but Mike is happy with progress.

I think the arena is exactly where it should be.

They've met all the dates,

everything's completely on schedule with it,

if anything, ahead of it.

So that's good.

Easter is in a couple of months

and although the barn has been cleared,

the stables are still being built off-site.

Work won't even start on the cottage

until the arena and stables are in place.

I do look about and I think, "Oh, my God, this is all to get done,"

and that's quite stressful.

HE LAUGHS

Nick is determined to press ahead with promotion

and have a pre-Easter launch.

The plan is to hold a horse-jumping event in the indoor arena.

There is now just five weeks.

So what about the launch? Is the arena ready?

It's looking good, yeah.

They have about a week to ten days,

they're hoping to complete and have the arena functional.

I'll chase up the tourism people and the press and get them there

because we really have to get some hype behind this place

-and get it launched properly.

-Great.

'We need those guys to give a good marketing push

-'at the time of the launch. Yeah?'

-Definitely. Yeah.

'And remember,'

Derry is the City of Culture.

There'll be a load of money floating around

-'and I want you to be there to take advantage of it.'

-Yeah.

With that in mind, I've been doing a bit of research

and I found a place down in Tipperary that has a summer camp business

and they can take up to £20,000 a week

and I want you to go and have a look at it.

Give you some confidence in what we're talking about.

You'll see the possibilities at your place.

-That's great.

-OK.

-We'll keep working hard.

-Thanks, Nick.

-That's fantastic, Nick.

-Thanks a lot. Bye, now.

For the last 20 years,

Crossogue Equestrian has hosted residential children's summer camps.

This is our new accommodation for the students

and we can accommodate 20 young guests.

Although Crossogue has dormitories rather than tepees,

its business model of targeting young people

is similar to the one Nick is proposing.

One of the dimensions which is unique about running a teenage programme is

it has to be something that is family-orientated.

You've got to think, you have two children,

would you like to send them?

Hopefully, today's visit

will persuade the Nurses to move forward on the tepee idea.

-It's a bit different from what we would think about doing.

-Yeah.

But the basic, the core elements are there

that he's got equestrian facilities and so do we.

It's connected with the horses.

It's not just they're English-speaking, they're students from abroad.

-The horse is key.

-The horse is the key.

It looks like the visit has worked.

Whether they push ahead with tepees this year is another question.

I think there's just quite a bit we'll take away from it

in relation to return business and where his market comes from

and how he's built that up over the years

but I think it's something we'll probably look into

and it's something we may well do, actually,

maybe into our second year,

but I think it's something that could work well in the North for us.

We could be a new market that... As far as I'm aware,

there isn't anywhere in the North that does this type of thing,

so I think it's a good potential for us, yeah.

Nick is on business in London

and Mike is on the phone with bad news.

With just a few weeks to go until the launch, he wants to postpone.

June? Oh, right, OK.

Oh, I was really hoping we'd get the start of the season,

you know, the Easter rush. No chance of getting it done, no?

The Nurses have decided they would rather wait until the summer.

For Nick, it's a big disappointment.

My anxiety was really to kick it off at the beginning of the season.

I don't need to tell you, you've been in business long enough,

to know that it's all a question of timing and catching the market,

but listen, I'll...

I'll get over my disappointment, don't worry. I'm a tough old bird.

I'll see you in a few weeks. All right.

That is...

Actually, driver, can you pull over just here? That's lovely.

That is a blow, you know,

because we were really going to try and catch the market.

Oh, damn.

Well, we are where we are. That's the truth of it

but now, of course, I've got to start unravelling things.

I've invited all sorts of people to this great launch

and now I'll have to cancel them.

We have scheduled for the Lord Mayor

to come to Lisdillon Equestrian Centre next Friday.

I'm afraid we've hit a bit of a hitch.

We'll be back to you as soon as we've got a new date.

Is that Robin?

I know you're all ready to bring the tepees and so forth,

but we'll have to put it off for a while.

Hi, Martin, how are you? It's Nick Hewer

from Lisdillon Equestrian Centre, sort of!

And it's just not going to be ready.

Thanks for your understanding. Cheerio, now. Bye.

God, I hate doing that!

It makes me look as though I'm to blame.

I hate letting people down. I really do.

Today is the proposed date of the launch,

but it's builders who are here rather than the press.

Although the indoor arena has got its sand,

the stables are still to be fitted

and work on the cottage has yet to begin.

According to the Nurses' original business plan,

work is under budget and ahead of schedule.

Nick sees things differently.

Well, I'm on my way to see the Nurses,

I guess for the last time, really,

and it's so frustrating.

The launch is delayed

and my fear is, not only have they missed Easter, for that's for sure,

but they're risking that they'll miss the summer season as well.

Nick's push to have a launch in time for Easter might have failed

but today, he still wants to keep the pressure on.

So when, realistically, looking me dead in the eye,

will you be ready to launch in here?

Well, the place will be ready, the arena to use,

in a week to ten days. When we want to launch it,

we've decided the summertime when the flowers are out

-and the place is tidier.

-Tidied up and we're ready for it.

All right. It may be that I was unrealistically pushing you,

because what I didn't want to happen was that you'd miss a season

because you know the year is chopped into seasons

and to get the Easter season, you have to go before Christmas,

to get the summer, you have to go after Christmas.

That's a long time away, and so there's a missed opportunity

and you have to wait for revenue that could have come in this Easter.

-You're going to have to wait until next Easter.

-Yes.

And that sounds to me like a bit of a long wait.

We're very happy with the process that we're been involved in

and as I said, that we're still ahead of schedule

on the equestrian side of it.

Our main point of our season, of course, is the autumn season

for the sales, when people come and stay with us

and we can take them to sales.

What you're talking about now

is your beloved professional side of the business.

-Yes.

-Am I right?

-Absolutely.

Because what I was also talking about

being seasonal and the Easter business and the summer business,

was more the sort of, I suppose, the consumer end of it.

-That's right.

-People staying in your cottages.

-Tourism end, yeah.

-And dare I mention the dreaded word "tepee?"

Not at all. It's more welcoming.

We're very excited about the tepee idea.

I've got something to show you. Come on, let's have a look at this.

-OK.

-You've brought us a tepee?

Let's talk tepees. All right?

Tepees cost £3,000, right?

-OK.

-And if you buy four of them, you've have to lay out 12 grand.

-12 grand, yeah.

-And each tepee holds four children.

-Yup?

-Yeah.

And each child pays 500 quid a week, right?

By 500 quid equals...

..£2,000 a week per tepee.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Times...

How many tepees have we got?

-Four.

-Thank you.

-That's 8,000 a week, all right?

-OK.

-How much have you paid for these tepees?

-12K.

12K. In a week and a half, you've paid it off and you're in profit.

-Yeah.

-That's not bad, is it?

-It's pretty good.

-And in a six-week summer,

-that is how much?

-48, OK.

Thank you.

£48,000.

A couple of years' time, you'll be in Barbados.

Yeah, we've grown to the idea of the tepees, we certainly have.

The Nurses are beginning to embrace the summer camp idea

but after eight months, Nick is struggling

to think of anything else he has managed to achieve.

'Maybe they've got something out of it in terms of marketing

'and in terms of the sort of seasonality of the tourist business'

but I think, actually, they're really interested in their professional

horse, equestrian side of things

and they've been just jolly polite

and have gone their own sweet way.

-Well, I must go.

-OK.

-I'm a bit disappointed.

-Yep.

You know, I just really wanted to see the bloody thing up and running.

-Yeah, me too. But we're not far away.

-But anyway, keep focused,

keep pushing, market like crazy,

-and good luck to you both.

-Thanks very much. Thank you, Nick.

-A pleasure having you, Nick. Safe journey.

-All right.

-OK, bye-bye, now.

-Bye, now.

'I think Nick was a bit disappointed

'he wasn't here to see our sort of showcase'

and our launch, which will be the summertime.

I suppose according to our business plan, we are on schedule.

Actually, we're probably a bit ahead of schedule

so the summertime is perfect for us.

His schedule and our schedule just...

We couldn't just bring them quite together.

-That's...that's life.

-Yeah.

It's summer, and a year after Nick's first visit,

the arena is finally up and running.

However, there is still no sign of the website

and there has been no further progress on the cottages.

The Nurses have missed another season deadline.

Slightly frustrating for Nick, because he wanted to see that all.

All being well at this point,

we should hope to complete our first cottage,

moving into our second cottage by January 2013.

I think it was probably quite ambitious

to have them ready for the summer season, given, as you can see,

the kind of size of the project we have here.

At least Mike and Rhonda have finally opened their minds

to one of Nick's suggestions.

In relation to the tepees,

that idea has led us on to the idea now

to build a small lake

because they're getting a big demand

for people that want to do camping with a bit of fishing.

Although they constantly clashed over the schedule,

Mike and Rhonda are still grateful for Nick's advice.

I think Nick was enthusiastic and very supportive

and felt that it was a good business idea, it was a good diversification.

You have to be true to yourself and work to what you've set out to do

and if it clashes a wee bit, well, that's life, isn't it?

But, you know, I think it's all good in the end.

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