TV star Alison Hammond recently swapped her place on This Morning sofa with Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby for a day working at local crisp factory Fiddlers Lancashire Crisps in Ormskirk.
The star of ITV daytime and BBC Saturday nights is used to interviewing some of the biggest names in Hollywood, but that didn’t stop her travelling up the M6 to don her hairnet and apron whites to make crisps as an intern at the company’s Brick Kiln Farm home.
She spent the day digging and processing spuds, before baking them into crisps and then packaging them in Fiddlers’ famous branded crisps packets ready to be sold across the UK. The crisp packets Alison helped make were even stamped as being made by her.
Alison said: “It was amazing spending the day with the guys at the Fiddlers’ family farm. I had so much fun joining in with all the different jobs it takes to turn a potato into a packet of crisps. They work really hard as a business and that’s so inspirational. I genuinely couldn’t do the job every single day, but I’m so glad that they do otherwise we wouldn’t have their amazing crisps!”
Alison is supporting NatWest’s Backing Business campaign, which has been launched in partnership with ITV. The campaign aims to champion businesses of all shapes and sizes across the UK, many of whom are the heartbeat of the local communities they support and serve.
A TV advert featuring Alison working at Fiddlers Lancashire Crisps is now live on ITV and also on NatWest’s Backing Business website.
The bank has committed to helping create an additional 50,000 new businesses by 2023, 75% of which will be outside of London and the South East, and its free digital Business Builder platform is packed with practical resources to help entrepreneurs grow or scale their business idea.
The Backing Business campaign offers SMEs the chance to access discounted TV advertising, match-funded by ITV, to help promote their business.
The Fiddlers’ family farm dates back to the 1950s when they started growing potatoes there. In 2011, facing the increasing challenges of small-scale farming, the family launched its own crisp range, inspired by an idea their grandad had years before and supported by NatWest.
Talking to Alison in the documentary, John Fiddler, Managing Director of Fiddlers Lancashire Crisps, said: “As potato farmers we wanted to find other ways to market our potatoes, so we decided to branch out and make good quality crisps. We’ve been with NatWest a long time and we needed their help to set-up. They made this possible and have secured our future in farming.”
Afterwards he added: “We’d definitely give Alison a job on the farm! She fitted in so well and wasn’t scared to get her hands dirty. I’d definitely give her ten out of ten.”
For more information about the Backing Business campaign and to discover how your business could access a discounted TV campaign with ITV visit https://www.natwest.com/business/itv-backing-business.html?intcam=HP-B-HI-DEF-Default.