In 2003, Charles and Gillian Giles decided to open up their farm to the paying public, in response to diminishing profits from their milk and cereals activities. They invested all their savings in building a 40-space car park and an area with spaces for six 40-seater buses, a safe viewing area for the milking parlour, special trailers for passengers to be transported around the farm on guided tours, a permanent exhibition of equipment, a 'rare breeds' paddock, a children's adventure playground, a picnic area and a farm shop. Behind the farm shop they built a small 'factory' making real dairy ice-cream, which also provided for public viewing. Ingredients for the ice-cream, pasteurized cream and eggs, sugar, flavourings, etc, were bought out, although this was not obvious to the viewing public.
Gillian took responsibility for all these new activities and Charles continued to run the commercial farming business. Through advertising, giving lectures to local schools and local organizations, the number of visitors to the farm increased steadily. By 2006 Gillian became so involved in running her business that she was unable to give so much time to these promotional activities and the number of paying visitors levelled out to around 15,000 per year. Although the farm opened to the public at 11.00 am and closed at 7.00 pm after milking was finished, up to 90 per cent of visitors in cars or coaches would arrive later than 12.30 pm, picnic until around 2.00 pm and tour the farm until about 4.00 pm. By that time, around 20 per cent would have visited the farm shop and left, but the remainder would wait to view the milking, then visit the shop to purchase ice-cream and other produce, then depart.

Questions
1. Evaluate Gillian’s proposal to increase the number of farm visitors in 2008 by 50 per cent. (You may wish to consider: What are the main capacity constraints within these businesses? Should she promote coach company visits, even if this involves offering a discount on the admission charges? Should she pursue increasing visitors by car or school parties? In what other ways is Gillian able to manage capacity? What other information would help Gillian to take these decisions?)
2. What factors should Gillian consider when deciding to increase the number of flavours from four to ten?

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WISTOW H A maize maze of the type Blackberry Hill Farm are considering A Source: Wistow Maze, Leicestershire Source: Sue Williams