An award-winning family butchers has taken its marketing and social media to another level after receiving expert guidance from Made Smarter West Midlands.
Eric Lyons started in the 1800s and the family butchery and fine food business has three stores in Knowle, Bentley Heath and Balsall Common as well as a concession within Warwick Garden Centre near Stratford-upon-Avon.
The business is now run by the fourth and fifth generations of the Lyons family – David and his sons, Nick and Dan.
The 25-strong business has also launched a nationwide delivery service for its well-renowned meats, pies and ready meals which are all made fresh in-house at the store in the High Street, Knowle, using nearby suppliers.
Eric Lyons wanted to enhance its marketing and social media particularly in the run-up to Christmas and the opening of its new store in Balsall Common last November and that’s where two interns from the Made Smarter West Midlands programme in collaboration with WMG’s Internship Programme, Chandrika Chauhan and Kunal Soni, proved invaluable.
Nick Lyons, Director at Eric Lyons, said: “We didn’t have a full-time website manager, but we knew we need to provide more content for our website and social media particularly with opening a new store and Christmas being on the horizon which is our busiest time of the year.”
The Challenge
Eric Lyons needed more content for its Instagram, X, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube accounts as well as its website and to increase its efficiency.
Nick Lyons heard about Made Smarter West Midlands via the Birmingham and Solihull Growth Hub and was put in touch with Lucy Cross.
She came to visit along with Jack Davis and Jasmine Agrawal from WMG, University of Warwick, who are one of Made Smarter West Midlands’ strategic partners, and after putting together a digital roadmap of their operations, it was identified that two interns would really benefit the business.
Nick said: “One of the most critical problems was having information in terms of pricing on the website which were not current and that was costing the business money.”
Lucy Cross, Digital Transformation Specialist for Made Smarter West Midlands in Greater Birmingham and Solihull, said: “Eric Lyons came to us a couple of years ago with a different project looking at their internal systems, but they have grown so rapidly over the last few years that they recognised they needed to change direction.
“They needed real-time data and to be able to answer customers’ queries more quickly and efficiently as well as introduce a digital pricing system at their different sites and to respond to different trends such as BBQ food when the weather is hot.
“We supported them with the implementation of digital pricing and it has also led to less food waste.”
The Solution
The company recruited two customer communication strategy interns via WMG’s Internship Programme.
Chandrika, aged 27, had completed a Master’s Degree at the University of Warwick in Marketing and Strategy while Kunal, aged 25, studied there for an MSc in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
They started in October and made an immediate impact. Nick spent the first week with the interns to fully explain every aspect of Eric Lyons and then gave them the freedom to come up with ideas to improve their website, data and social media to grow sales and increase their visibility.
Chandrika created organic social media content by filming Nick in the build-up to opening the new shop in Balsall Common.
Under Nick’s guidance, Chandrika and Kunal performed a joint audit of the website and reviewed over 300 product descriptions and images, which led to finding out not all its prices were up-to-date, meaning Eric Lyons was missing out on valuable revenue.
Kunal introduced a Chatbot which has been called Grandma Pat – named after Nick and Dan’s grandma – to make it more personal with her own tone and voice.
Nick said: “We had been looking at Chatbots and following Kunal’s research whether to buy an off-the-shelf product or create our own, Chandrika took on the Chatbot project and implemented the data.
“It has been really useful in terms of passing on business critical information such as Christmas opening times at our different stores which frees up our office staff and Kunal suggested we changed our telephone answering message with the same information at each store.”
Ian O’Donnell, Organisation and Workforce Development Specialist at Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, said: “Internships are really popular because it gives businesses the opportunity to bring in young, talented people who perhaps have a different skills-set to their workforce or have the time to analyse where a company could perform better which results in improving their productivity or profits.”
The Benefits
The email strategy introduced by Chandrika generated £10,513 extra revenue in the run-up to Christmas from one e-shot.
Icons have been introduced to the website to make it easier for customers to navigate and each product has been categorised, and more content has been added to social media with behind-the-scenes videos.
Chandrika suggested a Christmas flyer should be designed with a QR code so that Nick and his fellow directors could track where orders had been placed and this was distributed to customers throughout its stores and built-up a buzz for those placing their festive food orders. The integrated marketing strategy accounted for eight per cent of Eric Lyons’ total Christmas revenue.
Kunal audited and analysed Eric Lyons’ SEO and blogs are now more interactive with links to buy ingredients to make the products as well as cooking tips.
He also used AI for content generation and Kunal and Chandrika used Gemini AI for image generation to create secondary images for each product on the website which saved the business the expense of hiring a professional photographer.
Jack Davis, Innovation Manager at WMG, said: “We identified that interns would be beneficial and we helped shortlist the candidates and with the interviews.
“Throughout the internship, we had regular communication with Chandrika and Kunal to ensure they were fully supported in their role.
“Their internship has worked out really well both for the business and for them because they gained real work experience and delivered tangible impact for the business.”
The Future
Chandrika has been offered a permanent job with Eric Lyons she has accepted while Kunal has been offered a role through the University of Warwick.
Nick said: “Chandrika and Kunal have been exceptional. I would recommend Made Smarter’s internship programme to other businesses, but you have to invest your time and give them access to your business and give them an opportunity to introduce their ideas and sometimes make mistakes.
“They have brought new energy to this side of the business and it has been refreshing, we have really benefited.”
Chandrika, who is now ecommerce and marketing manager, has created a marketing strategy for 2026 as the business looks to expand into wholesale this year as well as build on the encouraging start it has made to nationwide sales.
“The internship has changed my thinking in terms of the impact it can bring and everyone was really supportive,” she said.
“I have been recommending the Made Smarter internship to my classmates because there are some great opportunities out there and something for everyone in different industries.”
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