The Farm Diary

Dear Lord, We have sinned...

2010-11-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Yup. We've been bad.

We haven't updated this blog in over 3 months. If we were in the fashion business, we 'd have probably executed mixing socks, sandals and a poncho down the runway. A true crime. We're sorry.

In truth. We've been busy, but that's no excuse. I have moved back to Bath for his final year at university and Will is working full time on the business, as well at his local pub The Barge.

Our focus has been on making our frozen yogurt better and our business better. I have been working on some changes to the way we communicate our frozen yogurt to our customers and how we can challenge ourselves more whilst Will has particularly been beavering away (STILL!) in the kitchen at some delicious new products, with our lovely new Frozen Yogurt machine, that's just for experimenting. It's called Gennaro Gaggia (In tribute to Gennaro Contaldo - he seems pretty cool on Jamie Olivers shows and we needed an Italian name starting with G...).

Anyhow, in recent months, we've also taken a few slight knocks. But we're still raring to go and full of energy. So, until next time, we'll make sure we keep you updated and please forgive us for our sins against blogging.

Chris

Got milk?

2010-08-13T02:32:00.000-07:00

In the last week or so, you've probably seen there's been a bit of a debate on whether the Govt should keep giving milk free to kids under 5.

Health Minister Anne Milton had said it was "outdated", "ineffective" and too expensive, whilst experts conuntered saying that it "provides a large amount of nutrients essential for growth, yet with relatively few calories".

Milk is a quick nutritious & delicious snack that was considered the original fast food, with this free milk scheme has been going since the wartimes years of 1940. It is also full to the brim calcium, which children need for strong bones (biology lessons coming in hand) with a portion apparently providing half the daily amount of calcium a child needs.

As child obesity continues to grow, its vital that we continue to push these sort of schemes to kids at an early age, which will really help to encourage good eating in the future. Surely it's an investment in the health of the country. It's all about developing a habit and taste early on, juts like we need to with fruit & veg (solution req'd).

The American Dairy Council are also doing a pretty good thing and promoting "3 a day" for dairy http://www.nationaldairycouncil.org/recipes/Pages/RecipeLanding.aspx. Which seems pretty sensible. I guess the only problem with these things is making sure that daily life doesn't turn into one big number remember-athon. 5 a day, 3 a day, etc etc.

It's also great to see celebrities coming out and supporting the campaign (including our favourite Arctic Farm eating singer Pixie).

Go to http://www.makeminemilk.co.uk to support the campaign and make your milk-moustache photo, we thought we'd have a go!

Luckily, our Prime Minister has opposed the scheme and it shall continue! All is good.

In other news, a man from Boston, MA, had a pea pod growing inside his lung, which he originally feared was cancer! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10945050

Can I try the banana?

2010-08-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

The hustle...

2010-08-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, we went along to a fantastic event at The British Library IP Centre (www.bl.uk/bipc), which conincided with it being the first time we've been to a library in a fair while.

The event also happened to be a ticketed affair and despite some nagging by Chris in the lead up, Will managed to tactfully ignore such requests to get a ticket and saved his call to the ticket office until the event had become a sell out.

Since we were in the area anyway, we decided to give it a go and charm the incoming audience with some hastily made, yet delightful signs, and stand in the entrance to the auditorium holding the door open for the passers by.

Gordon Bennett, it worked.

Which showed us that if you put yourself out there and go for it, then you're pretty likely to get something. Life Lesson for us #1.

A few minutes later we realised that infact quite a few more ticket holders didn't show and that we would've been granted entry even without such fancy signs and ingenuity. Nonetheless, we were pretty proud of the "achievement" and the fun we had doing it. Might try it again for a laugh next time.

The talk turned out to be a great and all about food. Yum. There was also free food and drink afterwards. Double yum.

And, Chris was also the greateful recipient of an iPod in the post-match prize draw, which after being passed on to his Mum, has made for a very happy lady. What value for money.

After a few glasses of wine, Chris was asked to answer some questions for some short films that the library were putting together based on celebrating British inventions, as part of an upcoming exhibition. Asked what his favourite British Invention of the last decade was (and whilst pressurising himself to quickly think of something unique and witty - "sliced bread" constantly whirled around his head). The genius came up with, The Internet. Yes, thats right, The Internet. A shoddy response by all accounts (neither from the last 10 years, particularly British, witty or unusual).

The next response involved a large frozen yogurt machine that would be useful for our world record attempt in October. How imaginative.

Anyway, a jolly evening all round and we'll be sure to go again. And next time we'll have signs prepared in advance.

In search of inspiration...

2010-07-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we took a little trip to the depths of the gorgeous Fountains Abbey near Chris' house. We discovered fresh mint leaves and absorbed sunshine, whiffed the summers air and felt like we were tasting nature. It's a constant source of inspiration for us, so we thought we'd post some pictures.

What's your source of inspiration?

A few snaps from our trials in the kitchen

2010-07-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, we spent some time going back to our roots and getting down anddirty in the kitchen. More froyo needs to be made and we just had the urge to try out some new secret flavours.

He's a few craftily edited inside pics from inside the madness.

Tasty froyo brewing in this ole time machine

Chris practising the art of the squat-stir. Good for the quads apparently...

Will, proud as punch

More squat stiring...

Exceptional technique

Our first fellow eskimos

2010-07-20T02:21:00.000-07:00

In the last month, we've taken on our very first employees! As it's a bit of a milestone, we thought we'd better introduce them especially as you may find yourselves dealing with them over the coming months and we don't want you thinking they're imposters.

In no special order...(well, they're all special)

Jonny – An old friend of Chris, Jonny is our PR and Copywriting man. He currently works in radio PR, Jonny bring a wealth of experience and enthusiasm for telling our story and getting it out there. A man full of wisdom and great ideas, he will be helping us to communicate better with our eaters. He will now be the proud receiver of an AF name badge.

Godders – (aka Chris Godwin, but “Chris” is already taken...) Is working on a very special project. Godders is a recent business graduate of University of Nottingham. He has a passion for travelling and experiencing international cultures having studied in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for 5 months and helped to lead a community outreach project with fisher-women in Tamil Nadu, South India. Our fruit project is still in it's youth, but it revolves around our passion for making healthy eating easier and more exciting particularly for the youth of Britain.

He also wanted us to let you know that he once scored a hat-trick in football during the university Sunday league whilst playing as goalkeeper. Nice one Godders.

Garrick. Our very first foreign recruit! Garrick is Canadian and a current student at Cardiff University. Garrick is heading up our events project – we're looking to do more festivals, shows, events and sampling sessions. Essentially delivering our product and making ourselves more accessible and aware to our customer. All in a way (our way) that is innovative, remarkable and never been done before. We hope! We're also all jealous of his uber bling surname of “Diamond” and he is keen skier, cook and photographer.

"Well done"

2010-07-12T02:22:00.000-07:00

Being relatively young in business brings both advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes people are not sure how to react to things, particularly when you meet for the first time.

I must say one of the most frequent reminders of this for me is that amount of "well done's" I seem to get, for doing seemingly doing nothing-other-than-daily-tasks to deserve such praise.

..."Ok then, I'll email that over to you later"
"Great, thanks. Well done. Bye"

I must say, I'm all for praise and keeping high spirits, but it's definitely an age thing. That said, I shall enjoy it whilst it lasts and when I only receive congratulations for those tasks which are truely worthy, then I shall know we're no longer considered young.

Chris & Will's Top 5 Stuff for Entrepreneurs on the internet

2010-07-07T10:23:00.000-07:00

So, we've been coming up with quite a few ideas for how we can improve our business and the way we do things. Doing a lot of talking, asking people and generally being a pain in the bum. But also, we've looked online, and there's some really cool things that give you case studies and advice.

Inc. Magazine http://www.inc.com/

They have some cool web chats with some great entrepreneurs. Some sweet articles as you expect from one of the best magazines or entrepreneurs.

Marketing Donut http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk

Loads of useful stuff on marketing, articles and that sort of love jubbly. And, they're pretty cool people.

Real Business http://www.realbusiness.co.uk

British business news and opinion, how-to guides and columns. We've found some great bits of advice and nice case studies on there.

Seth Godin's blog. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

A marketing hero, who believe all the right things. Including not annoying/interrupting people, and having great, remarkable products.

David Thorne http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

Sheer humour. Beware of future emails!

Aldi? Graduate Scheme? Bugger them. Start a business.

2010-07-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10521559.stm

One of the reasons we started Arctic Farm back in 2007, whilst we were at University was because we told by the media, that we'd never get jobs. We'd be buggered, with nowhere to go, noone to love us and a heap of debt. So we decided to start early and started selling frozen yogurt.

It seems like this story has reared its ugly head and it probably seems to be harder than ever, with only one graduate job for every 70 applicants they say. (With Aldi's grossly paid scheme getting 12k applications for 50 places!). Gordon Bennett.

We at Arctic Farm want to say to those on the scrap heap...

Start a business.

You might not get an aircon office (though in winter, it will be sufficiently chilled)
And, there won't be a company car, posh name plate or arse kisssing waiting for you.
Sure, you might have to ration yourself on bans for an extra while and stinge beer from your Dad.
Your mum might even kick you out the kitchen for making a froyo mess.

But it'll be bloody worth it in the end.
And you can make your own name plate (or badge if prefferd).

So if you're considering it, go for it. Thou shall not be disappointed. It's one of the funnest and most empowering things you can do. And if you screw up, try again. (Or maybe by then, there will be a few jobs about and you'll be able to tell them you did something cool)

And also, don't worry about having the perfect idea. Just go for it. That's what we did

2010-07-05T01:22:00.001-07:00

We've just started looking at some redesigns of our packaging at the moment. Mainly because we've been improving our recipe and so it needs changing anyway, but it's also an opportunity to give it a tweak/liven things up. Which we love to do.

It does mean i've been doing some drawings, probably fir the first time since 3rd year art class. When I'm doing it, I inevitably think i'm being all arty and practically get out the beret. It's only when i look at the end product that I get humbled.

Here's a sneak preview...

Anyway, we're doing some exciting stuff to improve the product and make it taste better. We've had some problems with some freezers, where are tubs majorly frost up. We're hoping we can solve that too!

Currently trying to organise a national tour of sampling and visiting various shows and festivals. So we'll update on that when available. Here's hoping the awesome weather lasts.

Shabba.

Chris

Through to the next round of The Pitch ...

2010-07-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a pretty busy month for us.

Will has just finished his degree and has now graduated. Lucky him, as he gets to spend more time (the rest of his life) making Arctic Farm!

Last week, we entered a competition called The Pitch. It was the South West regional heat that we get selected for, and whilst up against some great businesses, we managed to win. We were very proud.

A fun few hours that involved our acting skills being put to the test - it took 4 takes for us to carry a box of product properly - and some lovely people and judges.

You can see our winning pitch here.

We'll now be in the national final pitching to Doug Richards (former Dragon) for a prize bundle said to be worth £50k against other regional finalists.

Sainsbury's Supplier of the year!

2010-05-28T03:45:00.001-07:00

Hello All.

Last night we got presented with "Small Branded Supplier of the Year" by Sainsbury's which was a mighty fine honour.

This seems like a great milestone for us and we're definitely proud! Will finishese his uni exams FOREVER today, this is obviously very exciting. The main reason being he can soley concentrate on Arctic Farming (definietely nothing to do with the inevitable celebrations).

We'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that has helped us out so far because we owe a LOT of people! Hopefully we'll get a chance to repay such genorosity over the years.

Anyhow, hopefuly we'll use this as a springboard and we can do all sorts of exciting stuff over the summer.

Enjoy the bank holiday. (There seem to be absolutely loads of these at the moment!)

2010-05-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Plenty of Arctic Farm to get things going!

We got loads of ideas for new flavours and stuff for our high tech PostIt Ideas board

Sandra making a cone for a loving customers. Below. Sandra and Ellie Posing whilst Chris is in deep, conversation

Our flavour vote competition in it's infancy. What's your flavour?

More pics and comment to follow!

Our first festival!

2010-04-14T05:17:00.001-07:00

At the end of last week, we signed up for our first food festival and tradeshow!

Real Food Festival (www.realfoodfestival.co.uk) is in Earls Court, London from 7th - 10th May this year.

So we've not got long to prepare for our first big event of this kind ever, but we're really excited. It sounds like there are going to be loads of great food producers and lovers there, so hopefully we can convince a few to tuck into our frozen yogurt!

We plan on putting a lot of effort into making the Arctic Farm stand something special and out of the ordinary, so do come along if you're there! Who knows what ideas may come up.

If you're able to help out on any of the days, we'd love to hear from you. Will is stuck in the middle of exams, so can't make all of the days. But its bound to be great fun and of course there will be plenty of Arctic Farm provided!

Arctic Farm goes to... the Arctic!

2010-03-30T03:58:00.000-07:00

Have just got back from an amazing trip to Iceland - I was speaking at the MIT Global Startup Workshop Conference, in Reykjavik on Thursday.

After leaving Heathrow on Tuesday with Siobain and Gavin from Bath, whilst also bumping into our good friends George and Mhairi from Bristol Uni at the airport.

Highlights from the trip include

"Power Networking Cocktail Party" in the Geothermal Powerplant (which powers 98% of Iceland! v cheap and clean energy!).

This was despite the fact there were no cocktails and i find the phrase "power netwokring" quite off putting.

Dinner in the Pearl Restaurant - revolving. Made me feel pretty queezy but we had an awesome after party.

Panel session - with young entrepreneurs(& great lads) Sam Purtill, Donny Ouyang and Gunnar Holmsteinn. Had a really chilled out talk but with some good questions also. Was great to hear from the guy's and Gunnar's company (www.clara.is) sounds likes its going to be big!

Elevator Pitching Contest - Having not realised it was on, I was a late entrant into this entertaining contest where each person had 60 seconds to pitch their idea. Was thrilled the next day to be told I had won $250 for the crowd favourite prize!

Flight upto the erupting Volcano:

This was incredible! Gunnar was kind enough to invite be to go up with his pilot friend Einar for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Gave us the opportunity to see the landscape of Iceland which was so cool!

In order to make friends with the locals, I hosted a little after party in my room after the conference dinner in The Pearl revolving restaurant.

Had to improvise in order to chill the alcohol, which might gave given me an idea for when we're taking AF around the world or hosting parties!

Finally on Friday we went to the Blue Lagoon spa/pool and had some great time covering our faces with white stuff. The weekend was great, starting with a house party at Gunnars, with plenty of beautiful women and strange Icelandic cocktails.

Overall, I didn't have many expectations of Iceland. It was absolutely amazing both in it's landscape and the people. Would definitely recommend a visit and hopefully I'll be going back with some more Arctic Farm to sell!

Chris

We're now Nationwide!

2010-03-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Chris & sister Alice, checking it out in Sainsbury's Harrogate!

http://bit.ly/avJl6Q

Check the link above to see where you can buy Arctic Farm! (we will also be in Ripon, Melskham and Bath stores v. soon)

Not only are we coming to you for the very first time (including our smashing new Mango flavour, we're doing a special and not to be repeated INTRODUCTORY offer!

The half litre tub is reduced to £3.29 for a short time only, so it's the perfect time to give us a try.

Some recent press

2010-03-10T05:45:00.000-08:00

We were really please to be featured in the Daily Express recently, take a look at the article below!

http://express.lineone.net/posts/view/161506/Pair-fight-for-a-scoop-of-ice-cream-market

PAIR FIGHT FOR A SCOOP OF ICE-CREAM MARKET

COOL FIRM: Chris Hannaway, left, and Will Hammersley

Wednesday March 3,2010

By Maisha Frost

Have your say(0)

TWO students are banking on yogurt’s frozen assets to make them healthy profits.

Now the heat is on Chris Hannaway and Will Hammersley to prove their Arctic Farm brand, using milk and fresh fruit from British farms, can seize a sizeable scoop of the ice cream market.

Later this month Arctic’s half-litre £3.79 tubs will be launched in 109 Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.

Three flavours will feature in the roll-out - the venture’s flagship strawberry and raspberry blend, a blackcurrant variety and a new Peruvian fairtrade mango one. All are aimed at those who prefer their sweet treats light on calories and strong on natural ingredients.

Getting listed by the leading supermarket chain signifies a rites-of-passage moment for Arctic Farm and its 20-year-old founders, friends from school, who are studying at Bath University. They are taking it in turns to use work placement time to develop their enterprise.

Hannaway explains: “Scaling up like this is a massive move and involved changing thebusiness both strategically and operationally. But our intention was always to be in every freezer in the country and now we have the chance.”

The two hope for a £100,000 turnover this year and a 40 per cent annual growth rate after that.

Sales development and marketing, using online and mobile channels to underline the brand’s cool credentials, will be handled by them. Production and order fulfilment will be carried out by Beechdean Dairies, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, which has also invested £15,000 in the operation

It’s that partnership with Beechdean, itself a family farm, which enabled Arctic to take that next crucial step up and make a credible bid for the Sainsbury’s contract by demonstrating quality and consistency of supply.

The yogurt and soft fruit produced by other West Country farms is supplying Arctic’s production line.

“We’re students with limited resources, so out-sourcing is essential,” continues Hannaway.

“After the first excitement of the start-up stage, there’s that critical early growth phase when you are plunged into a constant chicken-and-egg situation. You can see the business openings, but you don’t have the resources to go for them – yet if you don’t, you’ll never grow.

“The most useful thing we have learned as entrepreneurs is to recognise what we are good at, what not and who can do that better for us. That’s why we value our partnership with Beechdean.”

The two enterprises collaborated on creating recipes that would both taste good and work from a production perspective. “Freezing yogurt - so you get the right enjoyable texture - can be trickier than it sounds,” explained Hammersley.

“We use just a few ingredients, and we wanted to cram our pots with the most fruit possible to get the taste and avoid blandness. But fine ideals have to work in practice – we had to get the soft fruit feed speeds right so there were no jams in the flow, and flavours and texture were preserved after freezing.”

Arctic has evolved from a smaller venture the duo started in 2007. Their homemade frozen yogurt won £5,000 in a Make Your Mark young enterprise competition. They captured attention by selling it from a vintage handcart in Bath, and eventually won shelf space in Harrods.

[please keep] Their direct approach to Sainsbury’s – its chief Justin King also studied at Bath - was another well-judged move. Public interest in and goodwill towards sourcing food regionally from UK producers has never been greater and Arctic Farm fits neatly into the supermarket’s Supply Something New scheme. This encourages pitches from innovative food firms and makes their route to market and subsequent expansion easier.

And where Arctic is heading, other enterprises have the chance to follow. “At the moment we’re particularly interested in hearing from local bakeries and suppliers in Scotland and Northern Ireland,” the store confirmed this week.

MORE INFORMATION
www.arcticfarm.co.uk
www.supplysomethingnew.co.uk

Had a nice chat with some students in Bristol!

2010-03-09T10:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, Will and I went along to the fantastic UWE conference centre in Bristol to give a talk to some school students about what we've been upto and where we want to go in the future (this was explained with a pic of DR Evil, so I'll let you guess what it involved!).

They were also doing a Dragons Den style pitching competition later that day and so we had a chat with the various teams about their ideas and what they were upto. There was some interesting stuff that came out and definitely some ideas I haven't heard before.

All in all, it was a good morning and great fun for Will and I too. Hopefully, we can do a few more of these as it's great fun for us and good for the brand.

Chilly Wonka

2010-03-02T01:51:00.000-08:00

Firstly, Will thought he'd fight a tank when we first went over to our factory in the gorgeous Chiltern Hills.

This is the pot I filled, really a shocking attempt. But it really does take a lot of skill! YUM

That one's got a bit of an afro...

Suitably impressed and concentrating. It's my big moment.

Take a look at some photo's on the inside - in Chilly Wonka's factory!

Our very first batch of Fairtrade Mango Frozen Yogurt was a great spectacle to watch and really enjoyed having a go at filling some pots.

Sainsbury's - 15th March

2010-03-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

That's us outside the Sainsbury's head office in Holborn, getting ready for our launch next Monday (15th). Exciting Times!

Also the guy we asked to take the photo, must've been feeling artistic - an odd camera angle.

A great night...

2010-03-01T04:52:00.001-08:00

Last week, we were really proud and honoured to met the founder of Ted Baker and hear his thoughts and the story of the business. We're absolutely in awe of his achievements and his an absolutely cracking guy!

2010-02-22T07:09:00.000-08:00

Next month, we’ve got our launch in Sainsbury’s coming up and that’s been something we dreamed of from the very start (and probably before!). At the moment, I’m really anxious to make sure it all works out and does well. I’m not so worried about people making repeat purchases because I know that our products taste fantastic and that people love them. I’m also really proud of our packaging and brand communications, our designers Bryt did such a good job on it, so thats not really on my mind either.

I suppose that convincing the UK people is possibly the biggest challenge. Frozen yogurt isn’t a product that a lot of people have had before or know a lot about. Changing habits is an uphill task and trying to get people to go for an untried brand, company and product category is definitely going to be pretty difficult. I’m really hopeful that I’ll be able to get out to lots of stores and do some tastings, to give people a feel for the product. Having done a few of these before, I know that they’re by far the best way to convince people that the product is for them. So often, the public do know what they want and it’s something that we’re so keen to learn from!

Anxious times ahead, but also hopefully successful ones too. Don’t forget to buy Arctic Farm when it comes to a Sainsbury near you on March 15^th!

Chris Hannaway

Founder of Arctic Farm,

www.arcticfarm.co.uk

www.twitter.com/arcticfarm

2010-02-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

Freedom! Or work, depends on how you think of it, but for the last week, I’ve been working fulltime on my beloved Arctic Farm rather than being at lectures at Bath University, (apparently working for oneself now counts as a university placement)! At least for me it doesn’t feel like work quite yet. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard and I’ve put in some long hours already, but I think I’m possibly having too much fun to consider it work quite yet.

Having spent my previous six month placement, doing 9-5 London commuting for 6 months, I realised that “thing” really wasn’t my “thing”. Maybe it was the obligatory Monday morning Pro Plus binge I don’t remember with fondness... So, I’m now working a lot more, but also getting a lot more out of what I’m doing (only 8 days in, if we’re “officially” clocking it”) and I guess a slight bonus is that I regularly get to do my stuff, in my PJ’s!

2010 is shaping up to be a fantastic and exciting one for our business. It feels like so much has gone on in the last year, but we’re now on our way to the point where things can take off and start to pick up momentum. I absolutely love our product to pieces, I just want to get it out there and share it with as many people, as far and wide as possible.

I’m sure the next 8 months until I go back to Bath will involve more stress, strain, enjoyment and success, but it’s likely to be more enjoyable than pro plus and hopefully will involve me meeting more fantastic people and enjoying so great opportunities.

Chris Hannaway

Co-Founder of Arctic Farm,

www.arcticfarm.co.uk

www.twitter.com/arcticfarm

2009-11-12T14:31:00.001-08:00

A little article I wrote for Bath Student Impact newspaper this month..!

My interest in business all started when I met Will, Arctic Farm's co-founder, in the school playgrounds of Ripon back in 2000; we were eleven and selling sweets to unsuspecting classmates. Thankfully our new venture is a bit healthier than that and we’ve tried a few other things in between, but I think we’ve always known we would go into business together at some point.

Arctic Farm, our frozen yogurt company (which is now available in the SU shop) originally started back in December 2007. Will and I were freshers in Mendip and looking for something to do, having sold some t-shirts and enjoyed one Neighbours episode too many.

Frozen yogurt was something we had considered to have vast potential. I know a lot of people have never tried it or heard of it, which is a shame, as it’s a tremendous product in general. Imagine a fruit smoothie whipped with creamy yogurt, which is frozen to produce an ice cream-like, yet healthy indulgence.

That’s Arctic Farm. No added sugar, nasties or nonsense, just a way of making healthy food exciting and tasting good (apparently half the population don’t think plain yogurt is tasty).

Arctic Farm has provided us with a lot of challenges (and highs) thus far and will continue to do so. It’s been a project that has been our semi-reason for existence for the last two years and to say we’ve not scratched at the surface is an understatement. Our main achievements include designing the most simple frozen yogurt recipe we can find (a challenge heightened by our lack of culinary precision) and being stocked in the world’s greatest department store, Harrods. Oh, and not forgetting the SU shop.

However, commercially we’ve got a long way to go and drinks aren’t on us quite yet, I’m afraid. To make it in food manufacturing involves dealing in big numbers and that’s something we are working towards, but haven’t yet achieved yet, having only started trading in mid-August. Our road to achieving our objective of getting frozen yogurt into every supermarket in the country, as well as the social goals that we have at Arctic Farm, has only just begun and it’s certainly going to be a tough.

If you have an ambition to create a venture or start a company, I can only advise that you go for it, right away, whatever your current situation is. It’s a tough slog to get anywhere, we had to ring Harrods every day for 3 months for them to take our call, but as you make progress, it all becomes worth it. There’s no better place than here on campus by getting involved with BANTER the Entrepreneurs Society, you’ll learn a lot or possibly get your first break through them, as we did.

Visit them at www.bathstudent.com/banter and take a look the all the activities going on this year to help make your idea a reality!

A little tittle about Enterprise

2009-09-06T11:39:00.001-07:00

Hi, Chris here.

This week I spent a few days up in Edinburgh, at the “International Enterprise Educators Conference”, representing Banter, our Enterprise Society at Bath.

It started on Wednesday with a dozy 4am wake-up call and forcing Will to get up and drop me at Bristol Airport and after negotiating my way through security (I think it was the suspect Aquafresh that held me up), I was allowed some time to ponder upcoming few days.

Not entirely sure what to expect (“enterprise” can take vague meaning these days) and being the person I am, I was sceptical about the prospect of listening to people talk how enterprise could be “educated” and leaving the farm for a few days, even if the prospect of not having to cook for a few days was rather appealing.

There is that whole discussion of whether entrepreneurs are born or raised, and to be fair, I’m still in the born camp. It was an interesting experience for me to understand what makes people tick and how other universities are organising their enterprise activities. I even reluctantly developed a sympathy for some lecturers and the problems of trying to attract other students to events.

Anyway, I thought I’d mention this as I had a great time and I think enterprise is pretty important. What other way are we, in this country going to get out the mess that we’re in? Oh, and at least enterprise is a pretty fun way of doing things.

I’m part of Bath Entrepreneurs this year and looking to develop some exciting plans, as well as attract some great speakers and have a go at some fun projects. Check us out at www.bathstudent.com/banter .Hi, Chris here.

This week I spent a few days up in Edinburgh, at the “International Enterprise Educators Conference”, representing Banter, our Enterprise Society at Bath.

Non-Fat's not so Phat...?

2009-08-30T03:24:00.003-07:00

Is non-fat really what people want?

Many competitor products in ice cream or frozen yogurts are marketed as “non-fat” or light, which does seem to be a great proposition on first reading. We all want a great, healthy body or lifestyle and sometimes that commando situps routine doesn’t always seem to be the most appetising route.

Fat is often seen as the villain that turns those biceps into bingo wings, with non-fat being the ultimate achievement in food. However, as with all things in life there are consequences of this, particularly in a frozen product where the fat is crucial to keeping it soft and therefore needs to be otherwise replaced.

The problem being that (firstly and most importantly) replacements don’t taste as great as the real thing and you lose the provenance, purity and spirit of the product. Changing fantastic ingredients may help to reduce costs and the fat percentage, however, it starts to mean that the customer is paying for powders, rather than fresh products that nature has made taste best. Is tis what the customer really wants?

We did realise that nature isn’t always the kindest on the body however… a mix of sugar, cream and eggs on a regular basis, won’t keep the doctor away (or make you feel great) and it’s important to keep in shape.

That’s why yogurt seemed to be an ideal starting point. Yogurt has creaminess, which is initiated by healthy live cultures, whilst being naturally low in fat compared to cream or ice cream. Actual fruit, and lots of it, seemed to be the next logical step. And to sweeten the deal, we heard about a fantastic product called Agave that has been used for hundreds of years in Mexico. It’s that sort of heritage we couldn’t ignore and that would provide us with sweetness from a low GI source. This means that it releases energy gradually rather than through one over-active burst.

We realise that having a balance is best, which is why we’re not non-fat. Fat is an important part of our diet, but we’ve not gone overboard (theres around 130 calories per pot), so there’s not guilt – infact the perfect opportunity to forget about the calories and concentrate on enjoyment!

So if this sounds good to you, join us with an Arctic Farm that is fun to eat and share, is simply created with passion and is easy on the tummy, and the earth.

Why frozen yogurt?

2009-08-26T15:07:00.000-07:00

What is frozen yogurt?

This is a question that many will ask themselves, or has been asked of me, upon mentioning that Arctic Farm is a “new frozen yogurt company”. Alternatively, many see frozen yogurt as a budget replacement to fresh a bit like frozen mince that might just look a bit like a milky ice cube which clearly is not the greatest or reps.

To those with some sort of familiarity with “froyo” it will probably be either the low/zero fat versions that are tagged along to existing ice cream ranges (created in reaction to the boom in dieting)that you are most familiar.

One question that I ask myself has to be why has frozen yogurt been done so badly? Other sectors, led by chilled juices, seemed to have realised that quality, provenance and authenticity are achievable – the sensible option in my view. Why use syrups, chemicals and potions to force through a non fat product, when you can keep things simple and jumble some fantastic, British fruit and yogurt together to produce something that is naturally a lot lower in fat than ice cream and remaining fresh, real and great tasting? Well, it seemed like the obvious thing for us to do, which is why we’ve worked hard to simplify the recipe and whole concept, we realised the glory has to be in the ingredients and where they have travelled from. Simplicity is certainly best in our opinion.

Admittedly when we started trying out ideas in our university kitchen, we thought it would be a little easier than it has turned out to be, to get the product right. Which is why others use those chemicals I suppose, while its important to keep it soft and low in fat (which is what the potions do) but I think we’ve found a way to do it with some names that you will know.

Yogurt is a great product in itself. It’s naturally creamy, tangy and has a fine taste. However, as an ambient product we have found it can be boring, unexciting and generally a little uninspiring. Although it tastes pretty good, it was never something we looked forward to eating, until we froze it. Ice cream, on the other hand has that excitement, spark or X-factor. For generations it has been much loved, but when we were looking for a product that was really 2009, easy to consume, local and healthy (we didn’t want to have to stop eating it…) we couldn’t find one.

By freezing our yogurt, not only do we extend the shelf life (naturally) but the chill factor adds that refreshing, indulgent feel. We want to make yogurt fun and hopefully by filling it with juicy, vibrant fruit, we’ve changed things a little.

Using British produce is something that has been something that has been extremely important to us from the start. It seems silly to be importing everything from all over the shop, when we’ve got some bloody brilliant stuff right here, on our doorstop in Britain. We’ve concentrated on using British fruit because we think it’s best to start simple, with what we know, before we use other fruits we don’t know about and potentially use them badly. We also wanted British to be at the fundamental backbone to who we are and what we represent, possibly even an opportunity to spread the word of the great produce from this country and possibly help out our pal, farmer Bill. This isn’t to say that we won’t look further afield in the future; we know that there is some fantastic produce and exciting varieties out there, but we’ll just wait until we are ready and take a look at how they mix with the flavours that we have at the moment.