8th February 2026.
Opening Reflection
I must say, I’m glad to see the back of January.
It’s been a brutal month. Business has been atrocious, but beyond that, this January has felt heavier than previous years. There isn’t much hope on the streets. Everyone seems to be operating in survival mode — and survival mode is not a healthy state for anyone to remain in for too long.
I can now understand why some people suffer from SAD. The lack of light, the greyness, the general downness — it makes everything feel harder. At one point I was seriously considering spending the winter months operating from Australia. It’s amazing what a bit of sunshine does to your mood.
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The Repercussions Still Ripple Out
We are still suffering the aftershocks of the fire at one of our suppliers. That single incident continues to have a dramatic impact on our trading.
Our farm shops are not where they need to be. People simply aren’t spending. You can feel the caution everywhere. Customers are holding back, and retail reflects that immediately. Optimism is a commercial force — and right now optimism is in short supply.
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Small Conversations, Big Consequences
The good news this week came from something deceptively simple.
Suzie, our Customer Experience Director, worked her magic — and that led to a team of people asking us to provide lunches for them all week. Much-needed revenue at exactly the right moment.
She is an inspiration, and a textbook example of something I keep learning over and over again:
In business, a small conversation can lead to something meaningful.
It’s never just about the sale in front of you. It’s about relationships.
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Green Shoots from Dubai
Alexander my son and commercial director has just returned from a very successful trip to Gulfood. He made important contacts — and some have already been in touch expressing interest in The Black Farmer brand.
That matters. When trading is tough at home, those green shoots of opportunity remind you that the story isn’t finished. There are still doors to open.
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Ask Wilfred: Making Retail Less Transactional
One thing I’ve been genuinely pleased about this week is the implementation of the Ask Wilfred function on our website.
Customers can now come online and have a conversation with me — about any topic they like — assisted by AI.
What we’re trying to do is make the website more experiential and less transactional. Retail cannot survive if it becomes purely about speed and price. The future is connection, experience, and usefulness.
AI is driving businesses into areas once thought impossible. I’m hoping customers will find this tool valuable — a way of bringing a human voice into a digital space.
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One of Those Weeks
I’ll be honest: writing this week’s blog has been a challenge.
I’ve been trying to find exciting stories, big wins, dramatic moments. But the truth is, some weeks don’t offer that. Some weeks are just hard. Quietly hard.
And that reminded me of something from my past.
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The Neutrophil Rollercoaster
When I was in hospital with acute myeloid leukaemia, I had to undergo a stem cell transplant. After the transplant, the critical question every day was simple:
Would my neutrophil levels rise?
Until they did, I was vulnerable to any infection, any disease, any complication.
Every morning blood sample was a heart-in-the-stomach moment. Some days there was no movement at all — just despondency. Other days the levels would rise a tiny bit, filling me with hope, only for them to drop again the following day.
For weeks I lived on that rollercoaster.
But the fact that I’m here writing this blog tells you what happened eventually:
The levels got to where they needed to be.
My body became strong enough to leave hospital and face the outside world again.
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The Business Version of Recovery
And I find myself thinking: perhaps business is the same.
Some weeks the numbers don’t move.
Some weeks you feel like you’re going backwards.
Some weeks you wonder if anything is improving at all.
But experience teaches you that recovery — in health or in business — often comes in inches, not leaps.
You just have to stay in the fight long enough for the strength to return.
I’m hoping that my years of experience will do for this business what those rising neutrophils did for my body: build resilience, protect against the worst, and allow us to keep moving forward.
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Closing Reflection
January is behind us. Thank God.
The light will return.
The mood will lift.
The business will find its rhythm again.
Hope doesn’t always arrive in fireworks.
Sometimes it arrives in small increments.
But it arrives.
Onwards.
