Farm shop loyalty scheme helping local businesses take on the big boys

A shopping loyalty scheme set up to get people out of supermarkets and into farm shops is gathering momentum across Britain and helping hundreds of local firms grow their businesses by offering customers points for shopping with them.

The Ice scheme launched in January with a call to farm food shops around Britain to join together to take on the big boys of the loyalty card sector and since starting with just 15 food partners, now has 500 local food firms signed up across Britain in its first six months, as well as a wide variety of other businesses spanning home and garden, fashion and clothing, travel and transport sectors amongst others.

The scheme allows local producers to offer loyalty points, with shoppers able to buy products online, in-store or via phone; the reward incentives outweigh any similar schemes provided by the major retailers.

In the following podcast we talk to local business owner Heather Copley from Farmer Copleys Farm Shop in Yorkshire about why she signed up to the scheme and her own experience starting a business which has gone from strength to strength since 2003.

For more information visit www.myice.com