from the midlands to london's borough market

14/8/2018

Farmer, Business Person & Go-Getter: Get To Know Leo McCourt

"Don’t ever under-sell your product or service."

Today Words Do The Talking are joined by Leo McCourt for a Questions & Answers session.

Leo runs Northfield Farm in Leicestershire which produces grass-fed beef and sells succulent pork, lamb and chicken in the Midlands, Borough Market and around the UK. Leo took over Northfield Farm when he was just 16 and has never looked back. He now runs Northfield Farm as a fully fledged, super-modern business and keeps it at the forefront of the farming industry.

Leo's experience and views on farming are exciting, educated and passionate. He has a hunger to ensure Northfield Farm continues to be the masters of their trade and thrive as a bustling business.

Read on if you're looking for tried and tested business advice, inspiration and business motivation; so you too can make your passion profitable.

A grafter and an adapter: this is Leo McCourt.

Maisie from Words Do The Talking:
Hi Leo, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. Shall we begin?

Leo:
Hello Maisie. Yes of course.

Q. How many kilos of meat do you think you've sold since you started running the family farm at age 16?

A. That question makes my head hurt! I don’t think it is possible to give you an accurate figure, but on an average week we sell 2-3 beef carcasses, 6-10 lambs and 6-10 pigs.

Q. Wow, you must be busy. Tell us about Northfield Farm and the meat you sell

We sell beef, lamb & pork. Beef is the most popular. We specialise in rearing, sourcing and retailing what we believe is the best quality meat; predominantly from rare or native breeds of animal. Our 80 HA (200 Acre) farm on the Rutland-Leicestershire border is home to our Aberdeen Angus & White Park Cattle.

Our cattle are reared for 9 months on grass and their mothers’ milk, they are then fed for another 14 months on grass and finally fed either entirely on grass or with the addition of some locally grown and cereals. Supermarket beef is usually finished at 12-16 months old, whereas our beef is finished at between 24-32 months which produces far more flavoursome, juicy meat.

In the last 5 years we have made substantial investments in dry-aging technology both at the farm and down in London, which enables us to control temperatures and humidity during the dry-aging process; minimising wastage and producing a better, more consistent product. Our beef is hung as standard for 28 days, but we have seen huge demand at Borough Market for our custom hanging service where we hang the beef for as long as the individual desires. We have a mixed flock of sheep which lamb in April and May, and we source our pork from a select few local farms.

Q. Starting out in the Midlands, becoming an award-winning butcher business and expanding to London’s Borough Market; that has got to be exciting?

A. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for setting up the business and getting stuck-in down in London. The business was Mum and Dad's baby. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, they started the farming enterprise and the butchery and retailing business.

Q. A new business success story! Was there any chance you wouldn't have joined the family business or was it a given?

A. My parents never put any pressure on me to work in or on the business, but I was always just obsessed with cattle and tractors. As a young teenager I was keen to join the military as an engineer, but Dad managed to talk me out of that, and I soon got re-engrossed into farming - and haven’t looked back. I was never remotely interested in anything academic at school, however, I did a young apprentice scheme at my local John Deere dealership and then went on to two years at Moulton College. My Maths and English skills were pretty much non-existent when I left school at 16 but getting involved with the management of the meat business over the last few years has really helped me improve that.

Q. Describe a day selling Northfield Farm meat at Borough market: from arrival and set up to closing?

A. Variety…
For me the day starts at 4am with a drive from the farm in Leicestershire down to London in one of our fridge vans. By the time I arrive, the team there have started getting ready for the day ahead. The van usually takes 4 of us 2 hours to unload. My brother Dom runs the butchery side of the business in London, and I run the catered hot food side. So he cracks on with his team to get the carcasses broken down into amazing looking pieces of meat ready for the counters, and I get stuck into preparing for a day of selling burgers and salt beef. All the bread that comes from the bakery needs to be sliced, onions peeled, chopped and cooked off. Salad washed and prepped and mountains of cheese is hand-sliced, ready for our best seller: the bacon and cheese burger.

Breakfast usually starts around 8:30 am with a mixture of people working locally wanting a hearty breakfast before a day in the office, and tourists from all over the world, who are usually jet-lagged and looking for some sustenance to power them through a busy day of sightseeing in the Capital. We transition from breakfast to lunch around mid-day when people start wanting to get stuck into our burgers, and beef dripping fries. The lunch trade tends to tail off at around 3:30 but there is always demand until the market closes.
Then it is time for the daily clean which takes between 1 & 2 hours depending on how much mess we have made. We are usually finished between 6 & 7 pm.

Q. And the festivals you cater for, do you ever get to party at them?

A. I probably could, but I like to focus on selling as much as possible at the festivals, and save my partying for January and February when I’m up a mountain with an Aperol spritz in my hand..

Q. So... Where did the nickname 'The Tank' come from?

A. HAHA! As a kid, I played rugby for my local team Oakham RFC. I was always the biggest in the team which meant I was naturally pretty handy at smashing my way to the line and scoring. One day I was making a break for the try line which was just in front of the old club house, and Fred Wilson our team’s coach screamed at the top of his voice “everyone in the clubhouse watch out, the tank is making a run for it.” From that day until I stopped playing when I was about 15, my teammates all referred to me as Tank. And now nearly 10 years later whether I’m shopping in Tesco, or doing contracting work on Fred’s farm, if I bump into him I am still referred to as “Tank”.

Q. So Tank, besides selling Award Winning Meats, what else makes you tick?

A. Bizarrely for an 18 stone young farmer, I love fitness. Mainly boxing and weight lifting in the winter at a gym, and doing a fair bit of running and cycling in the summer. I guess if I didn’t have ad-lib access to some of the best food in the country, I’d be a bit lighter on my feet. Skiing is my go-to holiday; combining a love of speed and food makes it pretty unbeatable for me. I love motorbikes and fast cars too, but I need to sell a few more burgers before I can really take them up as a hobby.

Q. What tips, dos and don'ts would you give a farm-seller or other business looking to expand in the same way you have?

A. 1: Don’t under sell your product/service.
That’s something dad has always told me. You think you’re making lots of money when you are the business’s only employee and you’re not paying VAT, PAYE, and business rates on multiple sites and maintaining a fleet of vehicles. But for a business to grow and be sustainable, it needs to be built on solid foundations and you need to allow for that.

2: Know your costs.

3: Make sure you have a passion for what you are selling and doing.
That way, sitting up in the middle of the night researching bacon slicers or calving a cow, when most normal people are sleeping, won’t seem like a chore.

4: Make time for a holiday.
Time away does help you re-focus and realise areas that you can improve upon.

5: Getting stressed doesn’t usually help solve whatever it is that is making you feel stressed.
Paul Duffin runs the contracting firm that I did a couple of harvests for when I was 17/18 and no matter whether someone had rolled a brand new £120,000 John Deere tractor into a ditch, or stabbed a bale spike through a brand new set of tyres; he’d just sigh, and crack on with solving the problem, rather than jumping up and down having a tantrum.

Q. What's next for your brand? Any short term or long term goals?

A. I’ve got lots of ideas for the future, but for the next couple of years, my aim is to do what we do now, but better rather than starting anything new. I feel that the stronger the foundations, the higher I’ll be able to build the business in the future.

Q. Where and when can we get our hands on your fresh meat?

A. We have our outlet at Borough Market open Monday-Saturday, the farm shop on the farm open Tuesday-Saturday and our online shop www.northfieldfarm.com for mail orders.

We are also pretty active on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter.

Vital Tips To Take Away

1. Do something you feel passionately about. The hard work will feel a lot easier
2. Never undersell your products as this will unnecessarily devalue your brand
3. Inject personality and character into your marketing because, it adds something a little bit different to your brand
4. Innovate and modernise as your business develops and grows. If you do this you'll stay one step ahead of the game.

Has Leo's story, tips and business advice inspired you with your new business venture?
If they have let us know by adding a comment below and inspire others by sharing this business blog.

Click or tap here to read our Q & A session with the coolest Surrey street food biz out there - The Drunken Mouse.