About Us

Fresh Retail Group Ltd. was set up in 2018.The founder Michael Boyle has worked within the speciality food sector, mainly farm shops, for many years. During his time working in the industry the businesses that Michael worked for won many awards and accolades. After working for some of the biggest names he decided to set up a consultancy company in 2018.

Michael's food journey began at Welbeck Farm Shop where he helped to create a fantastic haven for artisan producers. He was fortunate to work with some great people including the talented producers; The Welbeck Abbey Brewery, Welbeck Bakehouse and Stichelton Dairy. Here Michael learnt more about education in the sector from the School of Artisan Food which was located on the estate. He was also lucky toget lots of advice from Randolph Hodgson (Neals Yard Dairy) and Joe Parente on all things food. This is where Michael got a taste of great food and his love for the farm shop industry started.

After that Michael moved to Keelham Farm Shop. He joined the team in 2014 and helped to grow the business from a good £9million turnover to over £21million within 12 months. Michael was Head of Retail and was responsible for the day to day operations, production, Keelham Kitchen and online fulfilment. The team was 300 people strong.

Where Welbeck taught Michael the artisan high end element of the industry, Keelham opened his eyes to the importance of brand, the customer experience and how to operate a large business efficiently and effectively.

Charlotte Chapman is all things digital and now heads up the website development side of the business. Charlotte also worked at Keelham and looked after their social media and website for 2 years. Before that she has worked for some of the biggest names in business. Helping to increase followers and sales for big names including Sainsburys, Argos, John Lewis and House of Fraser.

During the recent Covid 19 pandemic, Charlotte managed to help clients by quickly launching online shops. This was great for customers and also profitability. The sites contained many great features and were capable of handling large volumes of orders and managing delivery zones and times.

Charlotte also has a great product knowledge and has led the product sourcing for several new start-ups. Not only is she interested in quality and taste, she also loves discovering the stories behind the suppliers and sharing their achievements.

Darran Lindley has worked in retail ever since leaving school. He started on the shop floor and then worked his way through many aspects of the business. Later he joined Sainsburys as a Business Development Manager. Here he worked with management and their teams to improve performance across various measures through coaching, training and reviews. It was here that he developed his passion for food and people. Darran then moved into their head office in London, taking on the role of Operations Manager for all food service counters - linking project delivery into operational routines and practices. He designed new format training materials, simplified process materials and supported migration into new intranet systems. He loved creating materials that focused on colleagues needs across multiple formats.

He joined the farm shop industry when he worked for Keelham Farm Shop as Project Manager, looking at a simplification of process as well as leading the design and implementation of their new Production Facility, Veggie Butchers and Juice Bar. Before moving on from Keelham, Darran lead the implementation of a new EPOS system. Finally, before joining Fresh Retail Darran spent a year within Morrison’s working as Program Delivery Manager for their Market Street operations.

Darran joined Fresh Retail in 2021 and we are thrilled to have him onboard. He brings a fresh dynamic and a wealth of knowledge to our growing team. Since joining us Darran has qualified as a drone pilot. He is a fantastic flyer and an amazing photographer.

We are proud of our current client list which includes many businesses from start ups to well established farm retailers. We tailor services to our individual clients and 80% of our customers continue to use our ongoing services.

We are forward thinking and great at making things easier for the frontline team members who serve our customers. We have played an integral part in process development and also in creating a customer journey that works.

We are thrilled that many of our clients are winning some of the biggest industry awards and also seeing huge growth and profit increases.

They say a picture says a thousand words, take a look at some of our projects.