CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 23rd April 2020

SUPPORTLOCAL.SCOT

The Scotland Food and Drink partnership is preparing to launch a new online portal to assist customers find local suppliers of food and drink.
This will be an invaluable resource for consumers who want to support local Scottish suppliers at this challenging time. More details on the scheme is in the detail below.

To join the FREE directory, please carefully complete the form attached, ensuring that all fields are completed. Return this form with a hi-resolution logo (JPG or PNG) to
[email protected]

It will then be reviewed by the team and, provided all information is present and correct, be uploaded to the website. We endeavour to have listing live within 48 hours.

Background

As you know, the Coronavirus outbreak has decimated the restaurant and foodservice sector and behind all these amazing foodservice outlets are the wholesalers, foodservice companies and food and drink producers who supply the restaurants, bars and the entire hospitality and tourism trade (plus events/festivals & markets); businesses who have seen their main route to market shut down overnight. As more people find the supermarket shelves empty and the slots for home delivery booked up weeks in advance, consumers are looking for new ways to buy food and drink in their area. As a result, there is an opportunity for some of our food and drink producers, wholesalers and foodservice companies to sell direct to consumers with deliveries in local areas.

However, consumers do not always know what's available in their local area. There are lots of new initiatives from quayside fish shops opening up, to foodservice giants doing home deliveries. There are a lot of folk who already had online shops (the craft brewers for example) but they need to sell much more product this way just to stay afloat.

Target audiences
Firstly, we want to ensure we have as many food and drink businesses as possible – large and small – on the directory to create a really rich resource for shoppers across the breadth of Scotland and we want to ensure every sector is represented.

We then want to reach out to consumers who are looking for other options to source their food and drink and are looking for a local solution but do not know what's out there. They are most likely to be ABC1 or older/retired. They care about where their products come from and are more likely to buy Scottish when given a choice.

Supportlocal.scot

We have now developed an online directory that is housed on the Scotland Food & Drink website (but with a direct url: supportlocal.scot). We see this directory as a key activity within the UK Market Development COVID-19 support plan. But we also see it living beyond lockdown and providing a constant resource for as long as business and consumers need it. It offers the chance to promote the benefits of shopping local and supporting Scottish food and drink and sits within wider plans to build brand awareness for Scotland as a Land of Food and Drink.

Its functionality allows the consumer to search by postcode area or region. It has sector and product search capability. It then serves up company information on products for sale, product and brand information and how you can contact the company to buy their products. It is not an e-commerce site, the consumer needs to make direct request to the company to place an order allowing for multi-channel sales; telephone, online, email, click and collect, pick up or takeaway etc. ensuring more businesses can use the directory.

Launch

We currently have 80+ companies and businesses from the larger foodservice companies who are now offering online shopping to restaurants offering takeaways and home deliveries to seafood companies, distillers and brewers. With a broad geographical spread. But we need to ensure that the directory is as comprehensive as possible and will be adding new listings every day.

Launch phase 1 – businesses
We will reach out beyond our members to Scottish businesses through our social media channels, PR and the Partnership comms channels. The UK Market Development Team will engage with Regional Food Groups, Chambers of Commerce etc.

• Ask : As we want this to cover all sectors, all categories; if you have members who could be included in the directory please forward details to Fiona Richmond at [email protected].

Launch phase 2 – consumers

It is imperative that we raise awareness of the directory directly with consumers. There are several smaller directories already out there, but without consumer awareness they will not gain adequate traction. We are therefore proposing a consumer facing campaign to raise awareness. Digital and radio advertising, PR and influencer activity will form the basis on the plan. We are proposing a 4 week, 30″ radio campaign across Bauer radio with an OTS (opportunity to hear) of 8+ supported with a four week digital advertising campaign beginning mid-May.

A number of Partners already have consumer facing campaigns active at the moment and we would ensure creative messaging augments any campaigns and would look to see how any of your campaigns could also support the directory.
The total cost for creative, production, four week usage and media is £38,318.00

Timings

The aim is for the site to be live from Friday 24 April with the B2B social and PR kicking off w/c 27 April.
We would aim to launch the consumer campaign by mid-May.

The Scottish Craft Butchers office in Perth is now closed following government guidelines.
We will be available to our members to answer any queries via email or by mobile phone and will be available out of office hours for any members wanting to contact us.
Our contact details are below
Gordon King: – [email protected] 07917524313
Bruce McCall: [email protected] 07834490922

Attachments:

• Directory_form_-_SuppliersWholesalers.docx