Every business has to start somewhere.

Ours started with four chickens.

Henrietta, Gwendaline, Peggy and Penelope arrived for one fairly simple reason: we wanted fresh eggs.

And fresh eggs are exactly what we got.

What we hadn't quite anticipated was just how strangely satisfying keeping chickens would become. There is something about opening the coop in the morning, watching them wander around scratching for whatever treasure only a chicken can see, and then finding a freshly laid egg waiting for you.

And, thankfully for Henrietta, Gwendaline, Peggy and Penelope, we've discovered chickens are considerably more enjoyable in the garden than at Gas Mark 5.

So they're staying.

In fact, we're planning more.

Then came the milk…

Somewhere along the way, a simple idea about fresh eggs started getting bigger.

If people appreciate genuinely fresh eggs delivered locally, what about fresh milk from a dairy, delivered straight to their doorstep?

And if we're delivering the milk, why not the bread?

And if we're delivering the bread…

Well, you can probably see how we ended up here.

The Milk Round Co. was born.

We're taking something many of us remember — the traditional local milk round — and giving it a modern twist.

You can order online, manage your regular deliveries and add the things you need, while we concentrate on the bit that really matters: getting fresh food to your doorstep.

And then we found the bakery…

This could prove dangerous.

We're now able to offer fresh bread and cakes from a bakery, alongside the familiar retail-packaged loaves people want for the everyday bread bin.

There is something very different about the smell of freshly baked bread first thing in the morning.

The only potential flaw in this arrangement is that Andy and Chris will occasionally be collecting it at around 5am.

Whether every cake ordered actually survives the journey is something our quality-control department may need to keep a very close eye on.

Purely for professional reasons, obviously.

So, what can we actually deliver?

We're deliberately building The Milk Round Co. gradually rather than trying to become a supermarket overnight.

We're starting with the things we think people genuinely want delivered to their door: fresh dairy, milk in traditional glass bottles as well as plastic options, fresh and packaged bread, eggs, bakery products and cakes, Friday fresh vegetable bags, tea, coffee, sugar, cereals and other everyday essentials.

And we'll keep adding to that range as we grow.

Some products will be available regularly. Others might be seasonal, limited, locally sourced or simply something we discover and think our customers will love.

That's part of what we want this blog to be about too.

We want you to see The Milk Round Co. being built, rather than pretending we woke up one morning as a huge established company.

There will be new products, new suppliers, more chickens, probably a few mistakes, hopefully plenty of successes and almost certainly some ideas that sound completely ridiculous before somehow becoming part of the business.

Where will it end?

We genuinely don't know.

Right now, we're concentrating on doing the basics extremely well: good products, sensible prices, dependable doorstep deliveries and friendly local service.

Then we'll see where our customers take us.

What started with four chickens and a few fresh eggs has already turned into milk, bread, bakery, dairy, vegetables and household essentials.

So perhaps being slightly mad isn't such a bad thing after all.

Henrietta, Gwendaline, Peggy and Penelope certainly don't seem concerned.

Thank you for supporting The Milk Round Co.

Whether you place an order, recommend us to a neighbour, follow our journey or simply tell somebody that the traditional milk round is making a comeback, you're helping a new local business get off the ground.

And from all of us — Andy, Chris and, of course, the four ladies who inadvertently started the whole thing — thank you.

The Milk Round Co.
Fresh local products. Real local service. Straight to your door.