Local specialities were on the menu on Wednesday 2 May as food and drink producers from across the county gathered to raise a glass to new food and drink network LocalFoodSurrey.com. Funded by Godstone mum Tracy Carroll, a longstanding supporter of regional food, the network has been developed for Surrey’s independent food and drink businesses. It centres around a magazine-style website with a directory at its core, allowing visitors to find local food businesses, including butchers, bakers, tea shops, restaurants, farm shops and vineyards.
Food writer Tracy, who runs a small food and drink PR and marketing business, says: “Interest in local food is gathering pace, and quite rightly so. It is sustainable and helps support the local economy, and yet it can be hard for small businesses to make enough noise by themselves. LocalFoodSurrey.com gives those people the chance to join together and by bringing them all under one roof we can really raise the rafters and help get them found.”
Keeping up her support for Surrey businesses, Tracy chose Knibbs Associates of Reigate to design and build the site and The Webfrontline from Caterham to create the database and administration system. She is delighted with the results and has been overwhelmed by the positive feedback.
“Although we launched on 2 May, the site has been running for a few months, as we needed to ensure it was all working perfectly,” she says. “I can report that it is and we are very pleased to have 45 members already. Now we are officially live, we will be concentrating on building a comprehensive guide to food and drink in Surrey.”
Tracy has also found that business owners are keen to use the website to find each other, commenting: “Many of our members are keen to hook up. For instance, shopkeepers and cafe owners who want to sell some of the superb food and drink that’s produced in Surrey often struggle to find what they are looking for. So LocalFoodSurrey.com includes a trade search button. We developed this as a result of early feedback and are very open to listening to our users so we create a tool which really works for everyone. Indeed, some of our founder members have now started trading with each other, having connected through LocalFoodSurrey.com.”
Contact Tracy on 01883 744653 or email tracy@marketplace.uk.com
Tags: local food surrey
