Newcastle’s Top Divorce and Family Law Specialist, Joanne Major comments in the Journal
If you live in the North East and are lucky enough to still have your milk delivered to your doorstep every morning, chances are it comes from Lanchester Dairies in County Durham. If you shop locally at Asda or Tesco, chances are some of the milk you buy there is from Lanchester Dairies. Even local shops, food manufacturers, cafes, pubs, restaurants and nursing homes in the region are supplied by Lanchester Dairies, not to mention North East champion, Greggs.
A family owned company, Lanchester Dairies are the largest independent dairy in the North of England. Originally a dairy farm, the business diversified in the 1990’s to include milk processing and subsequently, the herd was sold and the barns converted to incorporate modern filling and refrigeration facilities.
At the beginning of the year, Lanchester Dairies began supplying Blaydon based Hanover Dairies, who have approximately 120 delivery rounds from Alnwick to Catterick. Adding to their existing production volume, this latest contract will result in Lanchester Dairies producing over 33 million litres of milk a year.
A significant employer in the region, Lanchester Dairies are deeply committed to supporting the local economy, and use local suppliers and people as much as possible. From local dairy farms to your breakfast table, Lanchester Dairies is a true North East success story.
One of those very breakfast tables belongs to family law solicitor and owner of Major Family Law based in Ponteland, Joanne Major. It was Joanne’s son who alerted her to the idea of using milk bottles to raise her business profile when he innocently asked whether he and his brother could have one of the ice creams on their milk bottle.
On inspection, their milk bottle did indeed display a simple advert for local ice cream, produced it turns out by the Dairy’s founding brothers, Billy and Geoff Austin. The advert appealed to Joanne as being both quirky and effective and led her to approach Lanchester Dairies to negotiate having her own business printed on the Dairy’s glass home delivery bottles.
When asked what made her choose to mount such a promotion, Joanne said “I was impressed by the immediacy of the message. The milk bottles are ever present in the houses to which they’re delivered. They are taken repeatedly out of fridges, they stand on breakfast tables, they’re washed and placed on doorsteps. And as the deliveries are all local, my message is relevant to the people who see it.”
Joanne prides herself on being different from other law practices and is not afraid to take an innovative, and occasionally tongue-in-cheek approach to marketing, dubbing her practice in this instance as “the cream of family law advice”.
Her milk bottle promotion is now in its second year, with her “message on a bottle” going out via approximately 220 door step milkmen throughout Tyneside and Teesside, with approximately 300,000 bottles in circulation at any one time.
Lanchester Dairies co-owner, Julie Austin said, “we will never lose sight of the small shops and milkmen with their daily doorstep deliveries who have remained so important to us for the last 20 years”, and their general manager, Barry Peacock, confirmed that despite the success of the campaign attracting interest from other larger North East companies, it is part of the Dairy’s business ethos to support small local businesses wherever possible.
“Businesses who have remained loyal to us over the years are the mainstay of our success”, said Mr Peacock. “We are proud to support our region and we return the loyalty wherever possible”.
So look out for Major Family Law’s message on your milk bottle over breakfast and remember: When your problems are more than pint sized, contact Major Family Law”.