Melita Honey Farm, Tasmania
I have been a customer of Melita Honey Farm (formerly named The Honey Farm) for a few years after I got tired of the supermarkets’ golden substance under “pure honey” labels and found thehoneyfarm.com.au online shop in the Internet. In September 2008 I was happy to visit the real shop in Chudleigh, Tasmania.
Having a very positive experience with online shopping on the Honey Farm website for a few years, I expected to see a very nice place and nice people in Chudleigh. The owners of the Honey Farm — Henk, Lida, Remmo and Fanny Beerepoot, a Dutch family — met my best expectations.
In this little Australian village in Tasmania, in the middle of nowhere, basically, they created a piece of a fairytale and successfully run the honey business. The little shop looks amazing, very clean, cosy and offers a huge range of honey, skin care, bees wax and bee-related products. I met Henk, Lida and Fanny in the shop and they left an impression of people who love their job and doing it well. I hope to visit Chudleigh again when I am in Tasmania next time.
Melita Honey Farm contacts:
Online shop: thehoneyfarm.com.au
Address: 39 Sorell Street, Chudleigh, Tasmania, Australia
Phone: (03) 6363 6160, international +61 3 6363 6160
Opening hours:
Sunday—Thursday 9:00 to 17:00,
Friday
9:00 to 17:00 from October to March and 9:00 to 16:00 from April to September,
Saturday closed.
P. S. I have driven hundreds of kilometres from Hobart to Chudleigh with only two reasons: to see Tasmania and to visit the Honey Farm shop. And, surprisingly, the shop was full of other customers who did exactly the same thing (I had to wait for a lucky moment to make each photo without a crowd). Good products worth going that far to shop, especially when there are also nice people and a place to see!
This is a little hint to some businesses that sit in the centre of Adelaide — a million people city — and complaining that they do not have enough customers. Maybe a good website is all that is needed, or better service, or better quality of products? It should not be too difficult in the era of made-in-china domination, when almost everything is getting worse and less reliable regardless of the selling price and promotional promises.
Personally, with me as a customer the common marketing approaches like fishing out customer’s details with any purchase to then bombard with personalised junk mail, or aggressive advertising, or “special” offers never worked, and had a adverse effect on me, actually. The quality of goods and service are the main things that affect my choice.
26 October 2008
9 September 2009 update: I have been to Tasmania again and, of course, I visited the Honey Farm. Besides the traditional warm hospitality in the shop and a wonderful service, the Honey Farm offered a large amount of new honeys to taste and to choose from.
12 April 2010 update: I have just been told by Remmo, one of the Honey Farm owners, that the honey farm’s name is being changed from “The Honey Farm” to “Melita Honey Farm”. Therefore, I have made the corrections in the article.
6 May 2010 update. The last seven days were very happy: it was my holiday in Tasmania. It seems to become tradition that I drop in the Honey Farm shop every time I am not very far away. Below are some new photos.
