Delivering a long-held ambition.

Farmdeals is the UK’s only digital, national ag inputs retailer, powered by FutureFarm.

futurefarm-agricultural-buying-group-farmdeals-mobile.jpg — Farmdeals

**FutureFarm** was approached by a group of ambitious entrepreneurs that saw an opportunity in establishing the UK’s first online group buying service for ag inputs.
Recognising that 75% of UK farmers are **not** members of a coop, the aim was to introduce the benefit of group buying without the burden of membership fees.

The challenge.

Coops are a perennial priority topic in British farming. Farmers regularly point out that high membership cost, lack of national coverage, and minimum purchase commitments pose barriers for more than three quarters of UK farmers, who remain unaffiliated.

Amongst this large group of farmers there is strong interest in a new kind of digital-only, low overhead group buying service which charges no membership fees and offers national reach for its products. Our entrepreurs turned to FutureFarm to help build that business - Farmdeals.

Starting from scratch.

Farmers depend on fuel year-round. In 2020, British farmers on average ordered 26,000 litres of fuel, 70% of which Gas Oil (Red Diesel). The high price volatility of Gas Oil, Kerosene and Industrial Heating Oil (also Road Diesel) offered a useful starting point for the larger offering. Farmdeals and FutureFarm worked together to attract a panel of fuel suppliers to cover the main input fuels across England, Wales and Scotland.

In the space of just two months the team beta-launched the service to a select group of farmer customers, while continuing preparations for the introduction o agronomy options later in 2021. The rest is history: by the end of 2024 3,400 UK farmers had joined the platform and the team were managing 1,000+ products across all the main input categories.