A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT ORIGINAL TOUCHOriginal Touch Limited is a family business run by husband and wife team, Lee & Samantha Ford who are supported by their enthusiastic young children aged 12, 10 and 6! Blossoming from the combined family interests in gardening, in the environment, in travel, languages and cooking the company has grown rapidly to become an established and respected specialist seed supplier.
Original Touch specialises in 'Original Garden Seeds and offers a wide choice of unusual crop varieties to grow from around the World to attract amateur and experienced gardeners and cooks alike, who are looking to grow and cook something a little different. We sell our range via mail order catalogue and this online website www.originaltouch.co.uk. Our customer base is spread across the whole of the UK and around the world encompassing the home consumer, professional growers, smallholdings, allotment societies, gardening clubs and a few selected farm shops and independent garden centres. We are proud to have become a supplier to the Eden Project in 2010.
Our product range includes vegetable, herb, salad and flower seeds, cookbooks, delicatessen food, biological pest control as well as a selection of gifts. Many new customers find Original Touch when looking for something unusual to grow and cook, perhaps a foreign delicacy such as Italian tomatoes, German cabbage or perhaps a variety that used to be grown in older times and that has now fallen out of fashion, such as Rampion or Rapunzel from the Grimms fairy tale!
With its modern and ethical approach in the current political and ecological climate, we like to think that we are distinctive within the traditional gardening market. We are committed to encouraging everyone to "grow their own", whatever their experience or size of plot and we have assisted in helping to establish a number of community initiatives such as school and youth gardening clubs. The company owners give their own personal touch, producing helpful, free worksheets and, increasingly, are asked to give talks to community groups. We have a reputation for introducing new ideas as well as reviving old and forgotten gardening customs. Such tips feature on our Facebook page, Twitter, Gardening Guru, blog, interactive forum, which are also used to communicate with our customers. Furthermore, we hope that we are known for providing excellent customer service, any query being responded to immediately by telephone or email. Mistakes are made (we are human) but we hope that any mistakes are rectified in a way that pleases our customers. We have even been known to spend days searching to supply a particular seed for an individual customer!
Our owners know that the strength of every company lies, not just in the satisfaction, but the delight of each of its customers. Therefore, care is taken to ensure the highest quality and most stringent of controls by its selected producers to guarantee high germination rates and strong growth in all seeds. Also many of our seeds are supplied in larger packets, offering incredible value for money and a new project is under way to include free garden tips in every packet! In one recent month, the company received an abundance of enquiries about a particular squash seed, after it was mentioned by top chef Raymond Blanc on national television and Original Touch was recommended as a supplier on Monsieur Blanc's website!
Every existing or potential customer of Original Touch is seen as a building block within the company structure, rather than a consumer. Personal care for each one is paramount to help us grow rather than crumble. The growing company reputation is evidence that this philosophy works - many customers call to ask for more catalogues to give to their friends or email to say they are "singing your praise around our area". Allotment societies often request additional catalogues to distribute amongst their members and Original Touch are proud to have supported many fund raising events by providing free seeds as prize draws. Owners, Samantha and Lee Ford, are always overjoyed to receive news from customers which is often accompanied by photos of the crops in growth or being eaten!
Original Touch is a small family business which has only been established for a couple of years. However, the size, the customer base and our reputation is growing at speed, not least because of the care and attention given to their customers and to the community. Quite often, the couple have been known to place a higher importance to the satisfaction of an individual customer rather than to the profitability of any sale, as they are aware that the strength of any company is reliant on its reputation for care. The ethos behind the structure of Original Touch stems from Samantha and Lee's care for the environment and their passion to encourage everyone, whatever their experience, knowledge or amenities, to 'grow their own'.
The Ford family were eager to "spread the word" and at the same time as developing the business, established a Gardening Club at the local primary school to teach young children the benefits of growing their own food. Local funding was sought, a greenhouse and raised beds erected and an invitation to join the voluntary lunchtime Gardening Club was accepted by over 150 enthusiastic pupils - so many that a rota had to be arranged so that every child could spend some time gardening within the academic year! Every Thursday lunchtime, Samantha and Lee give their time to teach the children some of the basic theory in gardening , followed by a practical session in sowing seeds, donated by Original Touch, weeding and tasting the grown produce. The couple are often stopped in the street by parents expressing delight that their child is now eating fresh food never ventured beforehand, or that the whole family has become involved in growing their own food! Not only that, but the lessons support curriculum targets, such as in biology or "mini-beasts" and the children grasp the basics in commerce by selling their excess plants to parents in the playground to fund the necessary purchase of compost! The Club has been so successful that now the whole school has been able to take advantage of the gardening area in their class work.
This first school success was the precursor to the Original Touch Club Gardening Scheme. A number of schools and colleges, the majority currently from the Midlands area, have joined the initiative to receive free seeds and free educational resources from Original Touch as well as benefitting from a discount of any further purchases and access to a private members forum online. Growing competitions are arranged each year to encourage members to communicate and have fun. The 2010 competition "Grow the Heaviest Pumpkin" has attracted many participants who are competing to win a voucher to spend in the Original Touch catalogue.
Interest in this scheme is spreading and a recent new member is an administrator of the Scout Association's "Dig In" project (supported by the BBC). Original Touch has provided unusual seeds to grow and free resources with a discount on further purchases - the aim is to roll this out to all of the Scout Association (some details at the Dig In blog, http://scoutsdigin.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/free-stuff-from-seed-supplier/)
In 2010, Original Touch was contacted to help a social enterprise "Working Gardens" to establish a "Sharing Spaces" initiative. Original Touch has helped to develop gardening areas around the city of Lincoln, has donated free seeds and a range of valuable educational resources via the Plant to Plate programme, for example in more primary schools and to less fortunate members of the community in sheltered housing and in further social enterprises such as the "Pelican Trust" which provides a workplace to enable disadvantaged adults to progress into work experience, employment or educational opportunities and become more socially accepted. By growing crops, such individuals are able to see the rewards from their work first hand and appreciate the natural environment. Together, these communities have been helped to grow free vegetables and understand the importance of growing and cooking fresh produce, whilst generating their own income and reaping invaluable experience to aid their future.
Original Touch is passionate about demonstrating the benefits of growing to everyone in all levels of the community, even where there is very little garden space; increasingly so in new housing developments. Many of the talks given by the company highlight that everyone can grow crops in pots and on the windowsill all year round. The company was invited to present such a talk at the Lincolnshire Show 2010 by the Lincolnshire Co-operative. Also, Original Touch has been involved in presenting a series of gardening road shows with the Lincolnshire Co-op to local village communities.
Company owner, Samantha Ford, now writes a gardening article for the company's local community magazine with monthly tips and advice.
In addition to unusual seeds, gifts and biological pest control to purchase, the mail order garden catalogue that is produced by Original Touch each year includes many interesting articles and garden tips, with the objective of becoming a pleasure to read and an inspiration to all members of the community that wish to make a real difference. The catalogue is designed to appeal to all walks of life, from the experienced gardener to parents of a young family with a desire to contribute to the environment.
Whilst these initiatives have been initiated by the passion of the owners to help the community, they have also been the subject of increasing press coverage and have attracted the interest of further requests for help, which has been regarded as good publicity for the company and an incentive to continue its work.
We are very proud to have developed a high reputation for customer care and community spirit within the past couple of years driven by the dynamic and pro-active ethos of its family owners. However, rather than becoming stale, the company has many further objectives to continue its work and improve in the years to come.
Each year our Original Garden Seed Catalogue includes a wider variety of seeds as more varieties are sourced from around the World. The catalogue also features an increasing number of news articles and advice to inspire its readers. With the result of a larger publication, the company intends to create interim seasonal catalogues with targeted advice according to the time of year of its production.
We have been asked to give talks to gardening groups in the Midlands and have been proud to be a part of the drive by the Lincolnshire Co-op to encourage the community to eater fresh home grown produce. The company hopes to increase the range of talk subjects on offer to include practical "hands-on" sessions for different ages and experiences and is already taking bookings for 2011 to give presentations and lessons on gardening to new community groups.
The ultimate aim of Original Touch is to retain and expand its faithful customer base which will enable the company to both expand commercially and invest more time and resources into helping the communities of the future.
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