A new website has launched to help smaller food and drink retailers reach customers during the coronavirus lockdown.
Stock Up Small was started by one of the co-founders of Snaffling Pig – a start-up supported by the Virgin StartUp StepUp programme and winner of the 2017 Foodpreneur competition.
Andrew Allen, now a partner at Biff’s Kitchen, saw the great work major supermarkets were doing to help feed the nation and didn’t want smaller, independent retailers to be left behind.
Andrew started texting other founders he knew to see which businesses were still running - and something which started life as a simple Google Sheet of information turned into a website and campaign after gaining momentum.
Stock Up Small links people to all kinds of businesses across the country that are still operating a delivery service, enabling people to support local businesses. From wine, beer and tea to pies, pizza and chocolate, there are hundreds of things to choose from. The website even has your pets covered!
More than 300 small businesses are now offering products direct to consumer, with that number growing all the time. Among them are other businesses from the Virgin StartUp community: including Tea Plus, Denzel’s, Rubies in the Rubble, Fitbakes and FITCH Brew Co.
Andrew said: “I’m in a group with some other food founders on WhatsApp and I sent a message around to see who was still selling, as I wanted to support them. I got loads of messages back and it went from there.
“Although these brands are classed as small, some have been going for ten years or so. That’s ten years’ worth of work and care that has gone into getting them to where they are. If we don’t support them now, they might be gone by the time we come out of this.”
As more and more founders start to pivot their businesses, independent food and drink brands can fill in a short form on the Stock Up Small website to get their brand added to the list. Stock Up Small is non-commercial, purely existing to offer help at this difficult time.