Riverford Organic

Fiona Littleton

Manchester East

“When considering a franchise, first and foremost you need to love the product or business you are considering. For us running a Riverford franchise was because we both love to cook and believe that organic food is the best tasting as well as being better for you. If you don’t subscribe to the product you are promoting, you can’t inspire others to feel the same way."

Alan & Vicki Mowat

Bath

“We’d always had dreams of running our own business – working together, being our own bosses and being in control of our own destinies. There were several reasons why we chose a franchise instead of starting a business from scratch ourselves; a franchise provides a proven business model. Riverford in particular offered lots of support and information early in the process about what we could expect our income to be; it provided a positive cash flow from day one; and it meant that we could focus our efforts on what we do best, rather than having to think about every single strategic and operational aspect of running a whole business. We chose Riverford because we were already passionate about the product.”

Ian & Gwen Young

Newcastle

“We started to look for business opportunities as I had reached a career crossroad having had a couple of long breaks due to maternity leave, Ian had been thinking of running his own business for a while. We were both in the IT industry (that's how we met). I also had a brief stint as a secondary school teacher. We had no experience of running our own business but anticipated the support a franchisor could offer us would set us on the right track, however we weren’t actively looking at lots of different franchise businesses to see which would be best for us, it was just lucky that we were Riverford customers and learnt that they were a franchised business. It was a natural option to investigate. Running your own franchised business is totally different to being an employee. I now decide how to run my business and play to my strengths. I'd be a terrible employee now!”

Jim Harbridge

Portsmouth

“It seemed to us that franchising offered a good balance between the security of a well-established franchise business that could support us, and the opportunity to have our own business. We were Riverford customers for many years and we loved the product. On further inspection we decided that the model seemed to work well and would fit our needs. Even in the toughest of times I don’t think I have honestly ever regretted investing in the franchise.”

Liz Sowden

Dorking & Horsham

“The principles and values of the company I chose were very important to me; it had to be a product I believed in and something I was personally interested in. You can’t go into it half-heartedly; I would never have been able to give my all to a fast food burger bar, for example. Good food and people are the two things in life that make me the happiest, and becoming a Riverford franchisee enabled me to bring the two together.”