Farm Management

Assess the current capacity of ‘Holly Farm’ and critically evaluate the optional ways of achieving the intended growth in the number of visitors, bearing in mind that capital investment is not available, although self-financing revenue earning ventures can be considered.

1. Introduction

This piece examines the case of Holly Farm, and the plan proposed by Gillian Giles to attempt to boost the number of visitors attending the farm. Holly Farm is currently quite a successful example of a farm that has diversified into visitor activities to boost its overall revenue levels. However, the farm has now reached a point at which visitor levels are relatively steady, and hence the farm is failing to grow its revenue significantly. This piece will thus investigate the current situation at the farm, including the current visitor numbers and the projected capacity for the farm. This data will then be used to determine the extent to which the farm can try to attract more visitors and the strategies that could be used to achieve this. This analysis will take place assuming that the farm is unable to raise further capital investment, other than through additional services that will also generate revenue.

2. Analysis and current situation

The analysis of the current situation is based on the following assumptions:

• On average, each coach visiting the farm will contain 35 visitors, and each car will contain 3 visitors. This is to account for the number of single parent families and families with only one child that may visit the farm.
• The proportion of visitors by coach and by car are roughly proportional to the respective visitor capacity for coach and car visitors
• The car and coach spaces cannot be used flexibly, i.e. coaches cannot park in the car spaces and vice versa
• The milking sheds can support 80 people per hour for a period of two and a half hours, thus they have a daily capacity of 200
• The visitors are spread roughly evenly throughout each month
• 90% of visitors arrive after 12:30pm, and the visitors that arrived before 12:30pm at still there at this time. As such, around 1pm all visitors to the farm are at the farm and hence all need a car park space

The analysis indicates that the farm is currently very close to its maximum visitor capacity in July and August, with 80.8% and 85.9% capacity utilisation in the car park on these days. With 80% of visitors going to the milking parlour, the parlour itself is already over capacity on these days, with capacity utilisation levels of 106.7% and 113.3% respectively. It must be assumed therefore that some visitors that would have liked to have visited the milking sheds were unable to do so due to the capacity constraints.

3. Different scenarios

Two primary scenarios have been considered. The first is where the farm engages in widespread promotional activity designed to boost overall levels of attendance by 50%. The second is where the farm engages in targeted promotional activity designed to encourage school visits during the week, thus boosting weekday attendance levels by 50%. The analysis for these two scenarios is shown below:

3.1 Boost visitor demand by 50% on all days

It should be noted that, for this scenario, as the capacity of the car park is limited to around 330 people per day, some visitors who wish to visit the farm on weekends in July and August will be unable to do so. The farm will thus have maximum average daily weekend visitor numbers during these months of 330. A plan should thus be put in place to manage capacity on these days, and ensure that visitors do not travel a long way only to find there is no space in the car park. 

3.2 Boost visitor demand by 50% for weekdays only