Meet the Team: Andy (the second one!)

Meet Andy (can you believe there are two of them in our small business – it can get a bit confusing sometimes!). Andy is part of our Markets team so if you’ve ever seen us at a local market, you may well have met Andy in person.

Andy is a real people person and loves engaging with the customers and having a bit of banter with the other stallholders. When you go to the same markets on rotation, it’s great to build up relationships with people you see regularly and catch up on what’s been happening with them.

Whilst not a huge fan of early mornings, especially in the winter months, Andy has an early start on market days, usually having to arrive at a market before 8am to make sure everything is set up on the stall ready for opening at 9am. Some customers are often keen though so I have to be prepared to sell during my set up time too to maximise sales.

Once the stall is officially open, Andy spends his day talking to customers about Somerset Charcuterie and our range of products. Prior to Covid, we used to offer tasting samples but this is obviously more challenging since the pandemic. Andy enjoyed this part of his role as “getting people to try before they buy and talking about the flavours in a product was always something I enjoyed doing especially when it’s my favourite products which are Fennel Salami, closely followed by Black Pepper and Garlic Salami and Coppa”.

Most markets usually close early afternoon so then it’s a matter of packing up, balancing takings and returning to the farm to offload and leftover stock and the rest of the kit.

When he’s not working, you can often find Andy enjoying a glass of wine or beer in the garden with his favourite salamis, playing golf, riding his recently purchased electric bike or off exploring in his touring caravan.

The most memorable thing that’s happened to Andy in all his years working with us was the £91.30 he once took on an individual sale – “I always love a big sale, it’s so satisfying!”.