Pictured above: Denstone Hall Farm Shop and Café

An award-winning Staffordshire farm shop is inviting its customers to help shape its future as it gets ready to draw up exciting new expansion plans.

Denstone Hall Farm Shop and Café, in Denstone, between Uttoxeter and Ashbourne, wants its customers to suggest new facilities to help it establish itself further as a rural destination.

The venue, which was established in 2007 by Rupert and Emma Evans, is based in a former milking parlour, from where it sells quality food from local suppliers and its own meat from its butchery, as well as serving home-cooked meals and snacks.

Both the shop and café sides of the business have now become so successful that it has out-grown the building and wants to set up in the much larger barn next door, which would enable it to sell a wider range of produce and cater for many more customers in the café.

The additional space would provide plenty of scope for other indoor attractions, while the farm also has a riverside walk that the couple want to bring into use to attract more visitors.

Rupert and Emma, who gave up their careers in London to set up the business, have visited around 60 farm shops since the beginning of the year as part of their research into their expansion project.

They have a number of ideas, including an animal petting area for children, but are keen to find out what customers and the local community think.

Pictured above: Rupert and Emma Evans with their son Archie

Rupert said: "The range of amenities that have sprung up in the UK's countryside is staggering and we have seen plenty of ideas that have fired our imagination.

"However, whatever we do end up doing has got to be right for the area, which is where our customers come in. Not only do they know what this area needs, we want to ensure that we move in a direction that they're happy with, while retaining the intimate friendly environment that they currently enjoy.

"We're lucky to have such a loyal and growing customer base, but the last thing we want to do is change what they like about us, which is why we want to ask them for their suggestions."

The shop is installing a suggestion box and is offering a prize to the customer who comes up with the best - or most novel - idea. It is also inviting customers to visit its Facebook site and post their ideas on its wall.

Farm shops are the country's fastest-growing retail sector, mirroring the growing concern among consumers about the provenance of food.

Denstone Hall Farm has won the Tea Shop of the Year award in the Taste of Staffordshire Awards for three years running and also took second place in the NFU Award Local Food Champion 2010 awards. It has just picked up a Gold Award for its Smoked and Unsmoked products at the Bacon Connoisseurs Week Awards, organised by the British Pork Executive (BPEX), while its Staffordshire Sizzler sausage was crowned West Midlands Star Sausage by the British Sausage Appreciation Society last year.