A farm which switched to providing home deliveries during the last lockdown says sales soared 400% on Saturday as the county braced itself for a second lockdown .

Watts Farms , which has its head office in Aylesford , had, in the days before the pandemic, focused on providing fruit and vegetables to the top restaurants and caterers in the South East.

But when the original lockdown meant the closure of restaurants, it repurposed part of its business to enable it to deliver direct to the consumer - making over 40,000 deliveries.

And after a drop off in demand when lockdown was eased during the summer, its customers are flocking back in numbers ahead of the second national lockdown which starts on Thursday - particularly in the hours leading up to Boris Johnson's announcement on Saturday evening.

Director Ed Gray explained: “We were incredibly busy on Saturday with sales up 400%.

"We have been closely following the trends of customers over the last eight months, and people were readying themselves for lockdown. We have everything in place to be able to supply our existing customers and to reach further into our new national market, where we’ve received orders from customers under lockdown in tier 3 in Wales and Scotland. We are prepared for Christmas and have delivery slots.”

The family farm, which has sites in Kent and Bedfordshire, was established 70 years ago.

It adds that it has developed deals with local producers to ensure supplies for the festive season are in place - and will even deliver Christmas trees.

Head to our business page for all of the latest news about businesses in Kent