BigBarn.co.uk local benefit and booming

grownupgreen came across BigBarn and wanted to know the story behind its mission to ‘catalyse the local food industry for the benefit of producers and consumers’ because, as they say, ’....Every Bit of Local Helps’.

BigBarn tell their story:

BigBarn was set up in July 2000 to catalyse the growth of the local food industry. Both consumers and producers wanted the industry to grow but big business and traditional supply chains are difficult to change. Consumers want food they can trust and perceive local to be safe as it is fresh and accountable, and producers want to sell direct to get a better price.

BigBarn’s mission is to make buying local more convenient and encourage farmers to produce goods for their local customer whether they be local people or the local hospital. BigBarn has won awards and formed alliances with larger organisations for mutual benefit. Many producers are benefiting from the service and as more people buy local rural economies become more sustainable and a greater sense of community is built.

BigBarn was set up by Anthony Davison, a farmer looking for a diversification. Since passing out of the Cambridge Tech at the age of 22 with an HND in Business Studies he followed a number of career paths from farming to commodity broker to underwear salesman and even cuff link design and manufacture. Experiencing no great success by the age of 38 he decided to enrol on a 1 year intensive MBA to try and ensure that his next entrepreneurial idea was a winner.

As luck had it BigBarn was conceived from a dissertation carried out during the MBA entitled ‘The Farm Super Shop’, a feasibility study on setting up a large Farmers’ Market shop open 7 days selling produce from local farmers. The market research displayed a big change in consumer attitudes in favour of locally produced food and the shop may now exist if it had not been for the difficulty in obtaining planning permission and ‘being shown the door’ when he asked the family for the £500k set up!

The research did show that something was needed to help reconnect producers with consumers and at 3am one morning the solution woke him up; Set up a web site using post code specific local maps with icons showing the location of all the local farmers selling direct. A simple idea – a pictorial, easy to use website with a wow factor.

Right at the peak of the ‘dot com’ boom the idea seemed a good one and he began the hard work of gathering information, planning the site and looking for a suitable web design company. Just as he gained capital, via shareholders and loans and launched the site, the boom turned to bust!

A year later he began to think his 3am idea should have been ignored – his web provider was overcharging, very few farmers were paying for the service and his marriage was in tatters.

Forever the eternal optimist however and testing BigBarn’s potential with business tools he borrowed more money, won a DEFRA grant and sacked the website company opting instead to employ local, young, self-taught web designer, Matt Macleod.

BigBarn has now repaid the loans and hold the position of being the leading UK website for local food with 5,000 producers listed. BigBarn won ‘Best Dot Com Start up’ in the 2001 Eastern region High Growth Start Up Awards and the BCS Technology Awards Winner in the 2003 Cybrarian Awards. BigBarn is more than a website. Its mission is to act as a catalyst for growth in the local food industry.

Conclusion

Many people are losing trust in big business and their short-term maximising profit attitude. Retailers and food manufacturers are using the ‘people demand cheap convenient food’ excuse to lead us ‘Pied Piper like’ down the road to fast food, ready meals and GM. Recent food scares have proved that food should not be treated like a commodity.

Achieving BigBarn’s aims will help reverse the current food trend especially if BigBarn can persuade food outlets that their customers want local. More local food means; less food miles, less imports, fresher food, stronger rural economies, more local jobs and healthier sustainable communities for us and our kids.

Thanks to BigBarn for such an honest account. You can register for free at www.bigbarn.co.uk You can enter your postcode and locate local produce and there’s a great What’s in Season page with descriptions and recipe ideas.

Did you see our previous features on food search food in our Library

BigBarn - 14/03/05

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