A resilience masterclass for specialist retailers at UK Food & Drink Shows

Margin pressures, economic headwinds and legislative changes are continuing to pile the pressure on independent retailers.

Despite such issues, the farm shop and deli market offers inspiring stories of retail success, as visitors to The UK Food & Drink Shows can learn.

Taking place at the NEC Birmingham for three days from Monday 13 April, the event will feature hundreds of exhibitors from around the world and a packed programme of presentation and panels. (For more information on the The UK Food & Drink Shows, see below.)

At 2.30pm on Tuesday 14 April, one of these panels, ‘Resilience: navigating the challenges facing UK specialist retail’, will bring together retailers to explore the key challenges affecting the specialist market. More importantly, it will look at how businesses can adapt, innovate, and thrive in a landscape that demands resilience and reinvention.

Ahead of next month’s event, we asked the panellists to tell us a little about themselves, and what they see as some of the key issues impacting the market:

Mark Kacary, co-founder and managing director, The Norfolk Deli

Kacary spent much of his career working in sales and marketing roles for companies specialising in IT security, but after his children grew up and left home, Mark and his wife Rosie took the opportunity to follow a dream. In January 2014 they opened The Norfolk Deli in Hunstanton and over the past 12 years have built an award-winning cheesemonger, deli and e-commerce platform that champions more than 60 Norfolk producers. Kacary has also developed a Norfolk Producer Hub, created an online farmers’ market model, and turned gift hampers into a serious growth engine for a bricks-and-mortar independent.

Richard Nicholson, director, Cannon Hall Farm

After earning a BA in graphic design and photography in Hull, Nicholson returned to the family farm. The farm was opened to the public in 1989 and he has been there ever since, working in pretty much every department. Nicholson now spends most of his time cooking for online content, writing and getting involved with the farm’s social media accounts. Cannon Hall Farm is now one of the largest farm attractions in the UK and for the past eight years has been host to Channel 5’s On the Farm TV series.

What has been a career highlight?

Mark Kacary (MK): I love seeing how customers who came in for “a bit of Cheddar” walk out with three cheeses they’d never heard of – and then come back asking for more. That, and seeing The Norfolk Deli recognised nationally for doing things differently while staying fiercely local.

Richard Nicholson (RN): The publication of my first book, The Cannon Hall Farm Cookbook, last November. I always thought I had a book in me and in 2025 I finally managed to become a published author.

What is the best piece of professional advice you have been given:

MK: Don’t compete on price. Compete on meaning. Supermarkets win on price. Independents win on story, knowledge, theatre, provenance and service.

RN: I was advised to step outside my comfort zone and say yes to opportunities if possible. It was good advice.

What are the biggest challenges faced by independent food and drink retailers in 2026?

MK: One key issue is margin pressure from rising costs and price-sensitive consumers, which can be compounded by the false perception that supermarkets offer the same thing as independents for less. Independent retailers are also under immense time pressure – they are buyer, marketers, HR and cleaners all at once. And on top of running a shop floor is digital work such as websites, SEO, email and social media.

RN: The lack of a level playing field between supermarkets, online retailers and the independent sector. Government doesn’t seem to understand that small and medium-sized businesses are the bedrock of the economy. Larger businesses, especially international ones have all the advantages – bulk buying power, tax breaks, money to invest, clever accountants, political lobbyists offering donations to political parties and owners that hide in tax havens. It’s very hard to compete in that sort of climate. People with natural entrepreneurial flair need to be encouraged and incentivised. A major rethink is needed!

How have UK consumer attitudes to independent food and drink retail changed in the past decade?

MK: Consumers today care far more about where food comes from, who made it, and the story behind it – there is a desire for authenticity and local provenance. The challenge is that this intent doesn’t always convert to habit – people love independents but still default to convenience. Our job is to make supporting independents just as easy.

RN: Through concerted efforts on social media the public are becoming more aware of the multiple issues that all customer-facing businesses, including restaurants and independent shops are facing. Costs for heating, electricity, red tape, VAT, corporation and other taxes and most important of all the cost of employing people. Do we want a country where everything is mechanised? Is dealing with machines all the time going to be good for our mental health?

What would you like to see central and local government do to help independent food and drink retailers?

MK: Business rates reform for small high-street retailers; Incentives for collaboration between local producers and retailers; Recognition that independents are part of the tourism and cultural offer of a town, not just shops paying rent; Practical support for digital adoption, not just grants that require hours of paperwork.

RN: Reforms to VAT and rates that acknowledge how tough the sector is right now. Stop allowing huge corporations and billionaires to pay little or no tax while everyone else in the economy is taxed to death!

How have you adapted your own business to mitigate the challenges faced by retailers?

MK: We have built a strong e-commerce arm to complement the shop floor and invested heavily in SEO, content, and producer storytelling. We have also created high-margin, story-led products such as Norfolk hampers and cheese towers, and focused relentlessly on experience: tasting cheese, handwritten cards, theatre at the counter. This has helped position The Norfolk Deli as a destination, not a convenience shop.

RN: We are great communicators and an innovative approach to social media certainly helps with keeping a connection with the customer. Our ‘On the Farm’ TV series has gained us more fans who visit from around the UK and we have many international visitors each year that we’ve reached online. We’ve employed a new managing director who has made big savings by really drilling down into the figures and finding greater efficiencies within the business. This has mainly been done through negotiating savings from suppliers and getting department managers to manage staff more effectively. Bonus schemes for managers have helped with this process.

What action can consumers be taking to help local retailers?

MK: Consumers should understand that spending £2 more locally has a multiplier effect in their own community. A big help is shopping little and often – not just at Christmas – and trying one new product or producer each month. And spread the word – leave reviews, tell friends and share on social media.

RN: Shop local, shop often, use local retailers or lose them. Understand why prices are higher but measure that against jobs created in the local economy and services being available locally when you need them. Amazon has many advantages but it isn’t instantaneous and it will provide less jobs in the long term as AI takes over. Don’t spend all your money with huge corporations because they don’t care about individuals, they only care about the bottom line.

What is the biggest opportunity for independent food and drink retailers in 2026?

MK: To become curators and educators, not just sellers. The independents who thrive will be the ones who turn their knowledge, personality and local network into an experience customers cannot replicate online or in a supermarket aisle.

RN: In-store promotions and demos are a great way of personalising the service you offer, getting to know customers and giving your business personality. Creative online promotion and marketing is a good way to reach more customers. I advise using someone who knows the business well. External marketing people cost more, and don’t have enough knowledge of the business. Taking the business online is a way to grow without too much investment. It does require attention to detail though and is not as easy to get right as it might appear.