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Catch up on the latest episode of Made in Kent with Alia Pritchard.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV. I'm Alia Pritchard and today we'll be taking a
00:21close look at local heritage and family businesses. This episode took us across Kent's many different
00:26landscapes and into several business sectors. Our first story takes us to a local farm shop in
00:31Gravesend, exploring how they have diversified while keeping up the core of what makes them
00:36special. Christopher Hardz reports. It was obviously very different to what our parents had to deal with
00:45because in those days you didn't want people coming on coming onto the farm you'd try and stop
00:49people coming onto your land whereas we flipped it totally on its head and we're trying to invite
00:53people to come to us and to see what we do. Obviously opening the farm shop we always used to get
00:58people asking if we could sell produce that we grow so that was our original idea when we opened the
01:03farm shop back in 1990. That was our original reason just to to be able to provide a lot of the produce
01:11we grow directly to the public. I think it's a nice relaxed atmosphere we offer good customer service
01:17our staff are knowledgeable so people are educated on when things are in season which is when they
01:21taste the best. I would say it's important to keep family businesses running because if if we were to
01:27go who who's there to take over it will just be brought out by some big company who who knows what
01:33they would would do with it in the wrong way. Rodditch Farm in Southfleet has been run for over six
01:37generations and 170 years. We spoke to brothers John and Mark about what it's like to inherit and
01:43continue such a historic and important family business. Mark's got a daughter and a son I've got
01:49two daughters and they actively help out be it in the farm shop or when we do these events
01:54yeah they're always happy to pitch in where they can. If you want the farm you've got to diversify to
02:00support it and no doubt the next generation will find you know another alternative to keep us farming.
02:07When the farm first opened the shop there weren't any out-of-town supermarkets nearby
02:11but now there's four within a two mile radius. Mark explained to me about how they're trying to
02:17provide something different. It's certainly becoming more of a challenge because obviously
02:23you can argue you're competing against supermarkets. Technology has moved on so you have to I mean
02:29everything is now in the shop point of view. It's all barcoded and electronic tills which doesn't
02:37always lend itself to the image of a country farm shop but you have to go along with that.
02:41to make things more efficient and to make it easier for the customers as well. We grow a lot of the
02:47produce ourselves if we can. We buy in locally from a lot of you know we've got a network of farmers that
02:53we know locally who haven't been here for years. Because we've got the history behind us we care about
03:00about the countryside. We care about the farm and the land and we want to keep providing a service to the
03:06you know local community. Christopher Hart from Southfleet and Gravesend, KMTV.
03:14Now family businesses play an important role in Kent's local identity often with legacies that
03:19stretch back generations. This week our reporter Leah Devana visited the old Neptune in Whitstable
03:24to meet with owner Darren Wilton to find out how the pub's past continues to shape its place within the
03:29community today. Across Kent long established businesses continue to contribute to the county's
03:36character and sense of place. In Whitstable one of the most recognized sites is the old Neptune pub.
03:43Its position on the beach and its long-standing ties to local residents make it an interesting example of
03:49how history and community overlap. While the old Neptune's history is rooted in the past much of its
03:56identity today comes from the people who run it and the relationships built over time. A lot of the
04:02girls that work for me and you know the older girls you know their daughters have actually worked here and
04:08their sons have actually worked here and i've actually got a member of staff here and her grandson
04:11actually works here as well. My boys have all worked here at some point you know they've gone off to be
04:15electricians now and eventually they might come back you know when i'm ready to hang up my gloves.
04:22Yeah we do tend to look after our stars families too. The old Neptune's connection to family and
04:28community sits within a much longer story. Established in 1852 the pub originally served fishermen and boat
04:37builders along Whitstable shoreline. After being destroyed in the great storm of 1897 it was rebuilt
04:44using washed up timber evolving into the pub we know today. I'll tell you what sort of done as a big
04:50favour social media has done as a big favour yeah so i mean like people you know they're going on
04:55twitter it's always x now and facebook now they're taking taking photographs of the sunsets you know
05:01we have a bar on the beach you know we have this bar and people are going where's that place you know
05:06it's only an hour away from london so social media has done as a big favour. While modern changes have
05:11helped the pub reach new audiences its place within Whitstable remains rooted in the local community.
05:17I spoke to some people in Kent about their relationship with family-run businesses
05:22and what they meant to them. It's nice to try and support independent family-run businesses
05:27I think rather than big corporate places. I prefer a local corner shop to big corporate places because
05:33I think there's a lot of money in big corporate places and your big chains. Yeah because it's a
05:39really hard thing to run your own business so I think yes I think it is really important if you
05:42can do it and if you can support them then yes do. Everyone shut down here I don't think we would get
05:48any visitors and corporate companies can go anywhere. These are unique places and the businesses are all
05:55unique because they're run by individual people. For Darren old Neptune is part of the town's identity.
06:03The Neptune will always be part of Whitstable I mean like wherever you go in the world you know
06:07if someone mentions Whitstable they say oh the old Neptune you know we're out there we're quite um
06:12we're quite famous in England and Europe we're all over the world actually. Whitstable wouldn't be
06:17Whitstable without the Neptune. Leo Davana for KMTV in Whitstable.
06:22Now let's take a moment to delve deeper into the figures and statistics behind the success
06:28of family businesses here in Kent for this week's Deep Dive.
06:39Joining me today on the sofa is our reporter Jay Blakeslee. Hiya.
06:44So what is the history of family businesses in Kent? Well it's an extraordinarily special history
06:50considering the fact that Kent is a predominantly seaside county businesses within Kent have been
06:57historically very predisposed to be able to trade with mainland Europe which gives them that kind of
07:04upper leg you know to be able to thrive and succeed more within our county and we can see that not only
07:10could this have very much been the case because we have had some very very old businesses but not just
07:16some very very old businesses but indeed some of the oldest within their fields. For example we are
07:22home to Britain's very first building company that being Ard Dirtnell and Sons who claim to have been in
07:27business since the 16th century according to their website. Now similarly Shepherd Neame Brewery claims to
07:35be the oldest brewery in England which started its work in the 17th century though Kent City records would
07:41imply that it started business at least 100 years prior to that. And how important are family businesses
07:48to the economy? Extraordinarily. The Family Business Research Foundation found that in 2023 family businesses
07:55provided 15.8 million jobs which was roughly 57 percent of private sector employment and that in turn
08:03contributed about £225 billion to the UK public finances in that very same year. And how do family
08:13business owners feel about how they stand compared to large franchises? Well according to the Small Business
08:19Survey which was by that Family Business Research Foundation in 2023 73 percent of small and medium
08:26business enterprises both family owned and family run but despite this they're a bit of a disadvantage in
08:34the game. Some small or medium business enterprises feel some trepidation about their competition. For
08:40example the expeditions rise in supermarkets means that more local businesses are more likely to be overrun and
08:46as we're potentially about to see some family businesses feel like a bigger company has access to resources like
08:52HR, the possibility of franchising and familiarity. The government website also reports that a very
08:57very small proportion of family businesses, about 14 percent, feel that they have a strong capability
09:03when it comes to marketing digitally which as we all know is vital in today's world. Thank you so much Jay.
09:11And last but not least we sent our reporter Foray Adeoye to a car leadership in West
09:16Moorling that despite changing hands over the years remains a family-run business. For over 75 years
09:23one family-run car dealership has been driving success right here in West Moorling. We're taking a
09:29closer look into Humphreys and Parks and how they continue to thrive exploring how tradition, innovation
09:34and community values have kept this dealership on the road for generations. We've been on this site
09:40now in West Moorling for 45 years. I joined the business from from school slash college in 2012
09:50so I've been in here yeah coming up 15 years now. Yes we have our own workshop, our own technicians,
09:56our own smart repair, our own MOT bay etc etc. So yeah we we like to be a one-stop shop for our customers
10:04for everything automotive. The foundation of family businesses doesn't just start with business values
10:10but stems from family values. There's three of us that are working in the uh we're working in the
10:15business at the moment in terms of myself and two brothers uh my dad is is coming near retirement age
10:22now so he's getting ready sort of past the past the baton on um we have huge ambition for for growth
10:28across across Kent and the southeast um and I would in 50 years time if I could be sat here and my kids be
10:34working in the business and their kids are coming up through apprenticeship schemes and stuff like that
10:38that would be my my absolute ideal. I'm here at Humphreys and Parks, a family-owned car dealership
10:44right here in West Moorling and I've just spoken to the owner and his son about what a family business
10:48means to them. When uh children grow up we have a lot of time with them when they are when they grow up
10:54you rarely see them they move away perhaps you might only see your kids once much I see the boys every
10:59day it's lovely. It's my favorite thing about about um about my job is working with with my brothers and my
11:06dad every day. It's a family business we try and treat everyone properly do as we do as you would be
11:12done by treat everyone correctly and then hope that they in turn treat us properly.
11:18Well that's all we have time for left on Made in Kent but there's more news made just for Kent here
11:23on KMTV throughout the rest of the evening don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest
11:27news across your county by logging on to kmtv.co.uk you can keep us on your social timelines as well
11:34Well we'll see you next week. Thank you so much. Goodbye.
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