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12 months ago we made a little video about what we wanted to achieve this year, but how have we got on?!
More Food Options at the Cafe
The big aim was to have a regular savoury lunch menu. We trialled, we tested, we sampled and we committed, and ultimately we stopped. Making sandwiches is a surprisingly complex business. We consciously run our cafe as a very lean operation, with as high turnover:staff ratio as possible. This means that when we’re quiet, which will always happen, we aren’t paying for too many extra hours of labour which really hits the bottom line. The issue is, when we are quiet is the perfect time to make lots of delicious sandwiches, but there’s nobody there to eat them, whilst when we’re busy we are generally flat out and don’t have the capacity to make them. This, coupled with the need to manage regular orders of varying scales with multiple suppliers makes the potential returns not worth the risk.
We did though add a new freezer and sold you guys a LOT of ice cream over the summer, so lots more of that to come next year, as well as an exciting new line of protein shakes & smoothies
Campsite Showers
These proved a hit again for 2024. The plumbing all had a refresh, and this winter the buildings themselves will get a bit more love too.
Gym Demand
Another success story. Our class occupancy rate has risen above 53% through the year which is well above industry average. There are new classes, new trainers and new time slots which have all been popular. So much so, that we’re now thinking about potential new studio spaces and setups on the farm…
Friday Night At The Barn
These blow our mind with their popularity. It’s definitely our favourite thing that we do at the farm. Great food, great music, great vibes and everyone’s gone by 9pm and I’m in bed by 10pm. Win, win, win. Tickets for FNATB became more popular than Glastonbury over the summer, with the Poor Boys evening selling out (200 tickets) in under 20 minutes. We’ve got more of the same to come next year, and some extra concepts to get stuck into as well.
More Cycling
The initial thought behind this was to host more formal events. We had several event planners talk to us through the year, which didn’t actually come to anything. Which is absolutely fine, as this was definitely the year we cemented a spot in the local cycling culture which is hugely valuable to us. Regular visitor Matt dubbed the “Barn Run is the New Bun Run” caption on Strava which we loved (a nod to the mega popular London to Windsor pilgrimage by road bike for a Cinnamon Bun). We love seeing the stacks of bikes outside, particularly at weekends. Packs of hardened gravel riders out on 5 hour rides, but next to them a few balance bikes, ebikes and hybrids with kids seats on. Absolutely love to see it.
Learn from other Farmers
Little conversations with farmers across the land pop up across the year and we absolutely love it. One of the first we had was with the guys at Lopemede Farm near Oxford who are now killing it with yoga in a tipi, little live music events, art classes and loads more. Recently we met several fellow tenants of Merton College at the annual lunch in Oxford who filled us with dozens of new ideas which they are in the midst of. It seems 2024 was the year of Padel court building. And yes, we have checked but none of our existing barns are big enough…
More YouTube
There’s been more, but it has been a casualty of twin life. Hopefully with them starting nursery in January it’ll free up a little more time to put back into this. We’re not into the millions of subscribers yet, but every video has sparked a conversation with someone different at the cafe who has watched it, learned something or wanted to find out more on the back of it which is plenty of sustenance to keep wanting to make them.
Advertising
This has been ticking along in the background for the latter half of the year, and it’s proving really successful for the gym, helping us to grow our membership, and crucially finding the right people who will enjoy and benefit from The Barn. We need to actually make an advert that really showcases our Gym, but again, twin life has meant this was left to 2025.
Linkedin
A little like YouTube, twin life has got the better of this.
Also, genuine question: if anyone knows where farmers hang out online and find out more about things like diversification, let us know as I have no idea where that is or if that place exists.
No More Weddings
June saw our final, perhaps ever, evening event. It felt so good to bow out of evening events on such a high, with every wedding and party being better than we could have ever expected. But wow, what a relief to return to normal bed times and less worrisome weeks in the build up to each one.
I’m sure one day we will get back into it in one format or another when the time is right, but for now the focus is fully on midweek Corporate wellness days and events. Our first few in 2024 all went down a storm and we've kept Thursdays kept free in the timetable for plenty more bookings this year. On that note, if you think your company would be interested in an away day or summer party, please get in touch at hello@thebarnkt9.com
Twins
Of course the most important one, the twins. At times before they arrived it felt like they were the metaphorical Mount Everest and we (I) were ill-equipped 19th century mountaineers about to positively and optimistically meet our inevitable demise. But the good news is, it’s actually fine. It’s completely fine, and it’s more than that, it’s great. They’re hilarious, they’re lovely and they even sleep pretty well most of the time. Sure, productivity takes a big old hit but you learn how to work around it and once the first month (hilariously awful) had passed, life returned to a level of normality that far exceeded what we expected.
Our to-do list for 2025 is enormous and growing by the day, keep an eye out for some announcements about what we're going to get up to next year, and thank you for all the support over the past 12 months. We are nothing without all of you who come to the gym, buy coffees, attend events and support us in countless other ways.
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