Johanna Johansson - Skafferiet
Johanna Johansson - Skafferiet
I have always been interested in where the things I eat come from, and what’s in it. Therefore I always study the contents-list of all products. Today most people have lost touch with the origin of their food. My first idea was to start a “farm-shop” in the city. The idea developed in to being a farm-shop on wheels, selling products made by local small farmers and businesses.
I am 27 years old this summer, and have spent most of my life on a farm in Skåne. I appreciate the farmers passion about their work with the animals and the land. I have worked in the local church with children and youth, experiencing their food-habits. My knowledge about foods has deepened the last two years when I have studied Culinary arts and Food science, my passion, at Högskolan Kristianstad.
Me and my colleague will be tying connections with local small-scale food producers and processors, getting to know them and their products. We will also try to collaborate with the township that has “Spirit of Food” as a motto. And most important, we will try to speak to as many potential customers as possible, showing them our offer and getting their opinion about it.
A well-established marketing plan. This will hold the economic calculations of the company, a list of all the producers & processors and their season, different routes for the trips both for pick-up and selling of foods, eventual sponsors and everything that is needed to put the business in to practice.
Johanna Johansson - Skafferiet # 2
We have interviewed about 100 people about their habits when it comes to bying local foods, going out to small farmshops etc. From this we found out that a lot of people do have the earge to buy locally produced, organic foods in season but not nearly as many have the time or energy to go out to the small farmshops on the countryside. This has also given us a more specific group of people to target with our project.
We have also started contacting and making connections with the small producers in the Kristianstad-area, and most of them are positive to our idea!
Alongside with this we have started “working the numbers”, researching the costs of different sources of vehicles and ways to drive.
Not everything has gone according to plan. We were supposed to do interviews with people in Kristianstad and Åhus, in town and near the bigger stores, but as soon as people saw us many of them thought of us as saleswomen and gave us a big “NO!” before we even had time to introduce ourselves. So the interviews had to be done online mostly, but we got over 100 replies there so it worked out pretty well anyway.
Other than that things have gone according to plans. It was hard in the beginning of the project to know where to start but we have worked on all our goals for this summer alongside of each other which has worked out pretty well and right now we feel like we are on track!
We will focus on establishing a great network with as many producers as possible in the Kristianstad area. There are also some producers outside of Kristianstad with unique products that we will bring in because they can’t yet be found in the local area.
There are some different ways to go about the project that we need to do different calculations on, to see what prices we need to have and so on.
For our project we need a good concept and criterias for the groceries that we sell from our truck. The costumers must know what they get when they buy from us and we need a guideline to look at to see what products we can sell, and what we shouldn’t bring in to our truck. This will be the promise from our company to both the customers and the producers.
Johanna Johansson - Skafferiet # 3
It has been great to have so much time to work on the project, and to get some extra help from the incubator at Krinova. At the same time it has been difficult working on my own. Since only one of us got the leapfrogs-check, only one of us have been able to work full time on the project. And it has been difficult to move forward sometimes in the project without anyone to discuss ideas with.
Most enjoyable has been to explore all of the great, small-scale food-producers in the Kristianstad area. There are so many of them, and most people probably only know a few of them. It feels great to reach out to more customers with their wonderful products. The hardest part has been to be patient. You want everything to happen very quickly, but when there are many people involved it takes a lot of time to get in touch with everybody. Especially since many of the producers are small-scale producers they have a lot going on with their companies and not much time to spare.
Not many thigs goes as expected, there are always some bumps in the road that you need to deal with, but most of them lead to something good or a new experience. Surprisingly our business plan looks a lot like when we started, but with some adjustments and improvements. The plan right now is to start our business next summer, and with all the work we have done this summer I am looking forward to putting our plans into action!
That it is hard doing a project on you own. You need to take advantage of all the people you have around you and keep asking for help and inspiration. Especially when there are things I am not that god at, for example what vehicle to use and how the cooling-system can work. But with this said I am constantly surprised of all the positive comments and good advices and inputs I get from a lot of different people, sometimes strangers at the coffee-table.
Tips for new entrepreneurs:
Always talk to the people around you. You might not think that they have any interest in your project, but most people always have something helpful to say, or they can give you a fresh point of view. No matter if it is a stranger or someone you know, always keep an open mind! And let things take their time. It won’t happen over a day, and some days you feel like you are forced to take two steps back, but then the next day you move on forward again. Don’t give up too easily!