Farmer Spotlight: Happy Hogs Farm Market
Brandon Fullenkamp started Happy Hogs Farm Market (located in Hillsboro, OH) in 2012, selling whole and half hogs and freezer beef. As the “hobby got out of control,” he added chickens and eggs and began selling to a couple restaurants. Over the past few years, the Farm has dabbled in farmers markets, seeing some success but not consistent enough to justify the cost of travel.
In the past few months, Brandon shifted his focus to online orders, which has tripled his usual business due to coronavirus concerns. As he worked filling orders, Brandon filled us in on how the pandemic has shifted his business in a permanent way.
“It’s all we can do to keep up,” Brandon said. “The kids are home from school, so I don’t have those extra 6 hours in the day. Even so, people are stocking up, and I’m happy to provide it for them. The orders I’ve seen are high dollar—$100, $300 orders. We’re moving a lot of staple items: ground beef, ground chicken, pork chops.”
When asked about his customers, he said: “they’re mainly new customers who are placing orders. We were stocked up for the upcoming farmers market season, and restaurants were 80-90% of our business before this—and they’re all shut down now. Though the circumstance is unfortunate, my sales will rival friends who were going to 2-3 farmers markets in a given week. They’re saying they are selling higher too, at 2x what they expected—I’m at 500x what I expected this week.”
Brandon signed up for Barn2Door in August of 2019, and lamented that he had too many irons in the fire last fall. “Early on I didn’t give this the attention it needed. You all were great about pushing me on these things. It’s been a great experience. He added, “this has really opened my eyes to what the platform is capable of, when I marketed it properly.”
“The takeaway for me, seeing the system work, is ‘stay in front of people.’ Typically, once people buy the product once, they continue to buy it. It’s a matter of getting them to try it for the first time. Once people use the ordering system and know how it works they say, ‘it’s so simple!’ With the product we’re selling—heritage breeds—we can’t make every package of pork chops weigh 1.22 lbs. Thanks to Barn2Door’s variable weight feature, we can easily charge by actual weight(s).”
When asked how he’s thinking differently about his business than a month ago, Brandon replied: “honestly, a month ago I was ready to hang up my direct market business. I didn’t feel like it was growing, and was ready to be done. This experience has really renewed my faith, made me feel like this is where we need to be. I’ve threatened to get out of hogs a few times, and every time I do something happens to make me feel like ‘Brandon, you’re supposed to be here.’ ”
To address coronavirus precautions and adhere to social distancing, Brandon’s been leaving orders for customers outside at the Farm with their names on it. “People love it. That online presence is key right now, when people are distancing themselves socially. They know they’re not going to be waiting in line when they get here—the ability for people to order and come pick it up has been great.”
“We’re not a metropolitan by any means,” Brandon explained. “There’s only 32,000 people in the whole county. Before, people would say my prices were high, but we don’t aim to compete with grocery store prices. Since the pandemic, I haven’t heard a complaint about my prices once.”
“We just set up shipping, and I’ll be announcing that with Mailchimp (newsletter integration on Barn2Door), and social media. I see that doing well for the holiday season… And, people have been buying store credit! A lady the other day said, ‘This is so easy, and we love this. We’ll definitely buy more once the credits are gone.’ “
Brandon’s advice to other Farmers during the global pandemic? “Get yourselves out there, online obviously. This is a great time to post on Facebook with the right tags and send emails—there’s a huge demand right now. I don’t believe in fear. I do believe in positive marketing and in being a good community member. Your efforts to reach out, deliver and care will speak volumes to why customers should continue to support your farm long after this pandemic has passed. It is a palpable chance to reach, make and keep new customers [while also serving all of your existing customers].”
Barn2Door is proud to support Brandon, Happy Hogs, and Farms across the country. In light of the coronavirus outbreak, we’re doing everything we can to get Farms setup (often as in as little time as 48 hours) to sell directly on web, mobile, social and email. We’ve compiled coronavirus related resources for Farms here. If you’re curious about Barn2Door’s services for your own Farm, you can learn how it works with this short video.