BUSINESS PLAN

The Problem
Farming in developed countries is under increasing pressure from foreign competition and our own
desire to have cheap food, out of season, all year round. Current methods of production and
distribution (i.e. importing and using single use plastic packaging) create a huge amount of waste
and C02 emissions, while also being poor for animal/ecological welfare and the quality of our food.

Idea/USP
Part of the solution therefore is to decentralise and democratise farming so that everyone can grow
a bit of their own food, at home, thus making them less reliant on buying food from the
supermarkets and cutting down on importing and plastic waste. My idea is for a home kit made from
recycled materials, which would allow people to grow their own seasonal fruit and vegetables
throughout the year as a way to supplement their diet and be less reliant on supermarket produce.

How?
From basic research it seems there are two ways to do it: ordinary plant-pots of some variety with
soil, and hydrophonics.

- Ordinary planting would be the easier and simpler solution – and most likely cheaper. The
company could provide kits containing pots or containers made from recycled materials
(plastic, or perhaps cardboard, depending on how hard-wearing it was), along with a small
amount of compost stored in bags made from recycled material (plastic or paper), and
seasonal seeds. These could be sold year-round depending on what was in season.

The downsides of this method are that growing the veg is a long and relatively labour
intensive process (watering, keeping it in the light etc), there are limits on space in terms of
what types of veg could be grown and how much, and the cost may still potentially be high if
in order to avoid importing materials, I manufacture the goods in the UK.

On the other hand, it’s a very modular system: given the way I’m thinking of designing it, it
would be easy to scale up or down to meet the needs of the customer. You could for
example have a very small box set designed for growing herbs or mushrooms, which seems
fairly common and cheap at the moment on the market. This could be scaled up to include
veg, then multiple veg, on and on basically. Given it’s scalable in this way, there are potential
opportunities to team up with charities, schools, councils and so forth to create community
gardens and stuff like that, as well as commercial partners such as restaurants or blocks of
flats (at the large end of the scale).

- Hydrophonics is the other option. This is a process which basically involves growing plants
using no soil, but rather a growing medium which provides nutrients and water to keep the
plants fed. See this link for more details on how it works and the methods available:
https://www.freshwatersystems.com/blogs/blog/what-are-hydroponic-systems

The advantages of hydrophonics are that veg grows more quickly, you can grow things out of
season, and for the average person it would be far less labour intensive - *almost* plug in
and play once they’ve put the kit together, depending on the design. In addition, yields can
be higher, and designs can be quite innovative – I’ve seen ones for instance that incorporate

1
 themselves into household furniture like lights and tables, as well as ones which are straight
up farms.

The downsides are that the kits are potentially much more expensive and more complex in
terms of technology, making manufacturing potentially difficult, as well as meeting the aim
of having the things made from recycled plastics and not being imported without being very
expensive. It also has the downside in some cases of being a one purchase item: you buy the
kit and that’s it, no opportunities for additional sales beyond supplying new seeds or
growing medium, and similar to the traditional method, unless you go for a big kit, you are
limited in terms of what you can grow, (which again impacts on space).

What is on the market currently?

In terms of the traditional pot and soil type kits, there is already a lot of choice on the market here,
but they tend to be small scale kits for growing your own herbs, chilis, microveg and stuff like that
rather than larger staples such as potatoes, carrots, and so forth, and I don’t know if they are made
from recycled materials. Here are some examples:

1) Merryhill Mushrooms - https://www.merryhill-mushrooms.co.uk/buy-a-kit.html - kits

ranging from £10-20 or so. Product size is 7” x 7” x 7”. Unsure if recycled, (though certainly
recycleable given they come in cardboard boxes).
2) Grow Buddha - https://www.growbuddha.co.uk/collections/grow-kits/products/grow-your-
own-vegetable-starter-kit - about £10-20 again. Other products include chilis and herbs etc.
Pots are biodegradeable, so that might be an option, but it’s still not addressing the issue of
plastic waste.
3) Greenhouse sensation Quadgrow self watering planter -
https://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/2018-quadgrow-planter-bundle.html/ - cheapest
kit is £46 for 4 pots, ranging to £95. This is pretty much the exact product idea I’d be looking
at for the pot and soil method: it grows real fruit and veg, it’s relatively compact (depending
on how big the plants are), most importantly it’s made from fully recycled plastic. It’s also
self watering so it’s easier to use. It is however quite an ugly design, and quite expensive.
4) In terms of hydrophonics, this article by the independent (published June 2020) provides a
run down of the various kits available on the UK market:
https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/house-garden/gardening/best-home-
hydroponics-kits-gardening-indoor-herb-garden-a8461671.html - things that typify them are
a higher price tag generally (£50+ though there are exceptions), a cool modern design, and
again, mostly only growing small veg. There are exceptions in terms of price, but these tend
to compromise on some of the above, either in terms of design (they’re ugly), or complexity
(such as the one which makes use of household drinks glasses).
5) The one exception to this is getGaia: https://www.getgaia.com/gaia-for-industry?
fbclid=IwAR2YNfZFt4SHczM2qNo-93js73Z2afJkI_K_pKO3t3B4zo9icK5I7YKynoQ who do a
large scale hydrophonics system for growing large numbers of products. Price is not included
on the site as far as I can see, but it looks big, complex, and likely better suited to
commercial and wealthier customers with the space, time, and inclination to use it.
However, again these are potential weaknesses in that product which could be exploited by
an alternative.

2
Who are our target customers?

Initial target consumers for products like this are almost certainly going to have to be
environmentally conscious, middle class people, as well as (perhaps) students and other bohemian
urban types. The focus on recycling and growing your own is something that will appeal to them, and
they will likely have the disposable income and inclination to try it, not to mention the space. These
are the people we’d need to initially build our brand around to get ourselves established.

However, longer term if we want to expand (as well as make a bigger positive impact RE changing
attitudes to food and plastic use) we’re going to have to appeal to a wider audience, in particular
working class people. They’re going to be a harder sell because of their lower incomes, perhaps
smaller homes, and having less time in which to grow veg. Price and convenience are the two key
factors here, alongside sustainability (which would probably need to be the cherry on top rather
than the main selling point). One potential way to get things started here would be to work with
local charities/foodbanks in lower income areas to introduce local people to the product. Another
option might be to perhaps supply some of the equipment for free and work on a subscription
model, as well as sell the benefits of growing your own as a way to cut down on bills.

Other options include organisations and businesses such as charities, councils, schools, and
restaurants, as well as garden centres and farmers themselves (for farm shops). These are all groups
which could benefit from home grown, sustainable vegetables (both from a PR and community
cohesion perspective, as well as business and education).

What are the gaps in the market?

Given the above, there does seem to be a few gaps for at least breaking into the market:

1) Sustainability. Some companies approach this in different ways – recycled plastic,

biodegradeable pots, or just not worrying about it – but it seems from my initial reading that
taking plastic *out* of the current system of circulation might be a way to do it. This is
certainly quite straight forward in terms of making pots out of recycled plastic, but there
may be some potential in making hydrophonic kits out of recycled plastic too. Another
option in this regard is specialising in seasonal produce perhaps, as part of the problem is
our current model of importing everything is causing a lot of C02 emissions, so giving people
ways to rediscover (and enjoy) seasonal produce may be another angle to be innovative.

2) The types of veg on offer. From the other products on sale it seems like much of what is on
offer are small, supplementary things like herbs, mushrooms, or microveg, and not the
staples most of us are used to such as potatoes, carrots, onions, and so on. Size is obviously
the limiting factor here, but if we could find a way of growing veg like those in a compact
space, we could have a gap.

3) Cost. Though some of the kits are relatively cheap, they can certainly be quite pricey at the
higher end of the spectrum. Finding a way to do it more cheaply – particularly if we want
the product to appeal outside of a middle-class base – will be crucial.

3
 4) Target audience. As per the above, the initial market will be the environmentally conscious
middle class, but a potential way to upend that market and do something innovative would
be to come up with a product that can appeal to ordinary working class people first and
foremost, that middle class people can also buy into. I’m not sure exactly how we can do
that, though perhaps focusing less on ‘activist’ concerns such as sustainability and green
issues and more on self-reliance, cost, and whatnot might be an angle. Find a way of reviving
the blitz spirit of grow your own, perhaps. Another idea for targeting working class people
initially might be to start by teaming up with schools or charities or foodbanks and such in
order to help set up community gardens using recycled, user provided makeshift pots (say
out of reused bottles or boxes or whatever). Company would provide the seeds, the
knowhow, and the guidance – perhaps also the pots as well as a full kit – and also provide
information for users on how to cook and stuff like that. Kids in particular are a good target
via schools. Teach them to grow their own food, get them enjoying it, and they can help
persuade parents to buy in too and start doing their own thing at home. This method also
works well as a relatively cheap way to get set up: if we’re just providing seeds and
knowhow then it should be a relatively low cost to us to produce the required materials
(excluding labour costs), but if we’re providing full kits then economies of scale – supplying
on a large scale to a big customer – also makes things cheaper to produce than making a
bunch of individual kits and trying to shift them to individual customers. This method would
also allow us to help people directly, and skirt around the very middle class image this
product might otherwise have. It also still means they’re technically recycling if they’re
reusing old pots and stuff.

5) Design. Lastly, although this is down to personal taste many of the pot and soil products are
frankly just a little bit ugly, I think. Sustainable or not, green or not, if we can marry up the
look and innovation of some of the hydrophonic kits with a more traditional growing
method, we may be on to something there. Just search on google for some examples of the
former: they’ve been integrated into tables, light fittings, and so on and so forth. Granted
we’d have to marry that up with the plants’ needs for sunlight and stuff, but an innovative
design instead of just a variation of a typical plant pot might be a way to sell it.

What are the main problems we’ll need to solve?

1) Cost and convenience. No two ways about it. Manufacturing in the UK is going to be hard,
but it’s going to be the only way to make sure we stick to the whole mantra of using recycled
materials and being a green company. We’re going to have to find a way of doing this as
cheaply as possible. In terms of convenience we’re going to need a design that is easy to use,
potentially quick to grow (hence hydrophonics as an option), and produces a good yield to
make it viable as an option to replace the odd supermarket purchase. Again, hydrophonics
answers a lot of these questions on convenience, but it’s more expensive. There are ways of
doing it quite cheaply by adapting things around the house like household glasses, but in
terms of cost, pot and soil is certainly the better option. I also however need to look up the
relative costs of what these things would take to make, and sourcing the materials to make
them such as recycled plastic.

4
2) Space, and growing large veg. Again this is a problem for other products as well, but we
need a design that is fairly compact, and yet can grow a decent amount of produce. This is
going to be a particular problem if we’re trying to market it to people in cities or poorer
areas where they might not have a large garden and the like, but potential solutions include
innovating the design of the pots (or hydrophonic kits) to integrate them into household
items such as chairs, tables, lights and so on.

3) Target audience, and breaking into a crowded market place. Pretty self explanatory here
really – there are gaps in the market but it’s still pretty crowded, and in terms of target
audience it’s going to be difficult to break out of the initial bubble we’ll find ourselves in, or
appeal directly to working class or poorer people from the start.

4) Access to resources. In particular here is the issue of recycled plastic – let alone more
complicated stuff to make hydrophonics kits. At the moment I just don’t know how this
works and how I’d get the materials I need, ditto how much it would cost to manufacture
the end products, (and hence my prices).

5) Technology. Again this relates to the hydrophonics side of things: though I’ve got the basic
understanding of it (see the link provided above), I don’t know exactly how the machines
work, what the cost would be of manufacturing them, or if it would be possible to make
them out of recycled plastic.