Last chance to get your food and drink business mapped!
07 October 2021 : Business, Council news
Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) and Sedgemoor District Councils are working with the Food and Drink Forum to understand the support needs of local food and drink producers.
Based at The Food WorksSW in Weston-Super-Mare, the Food and Drink Forum is contacting food and drink producers and suppliers within the SWT and Sedgemoor areas to gather feedback on the business activities where they would benefit from support.
The feedback gathered will help to shape the councils’ support programmes available to businesses in the future with a better understanding of their needs.
Early feedback is indicating interest for support in areas including:
- Grants for equipment
- Support with ecommerce and sales
- Support with social media
- Accreditations such as SALSA
- Sourcing local suppliers
- Premises
- Assessing market opportunities
Simon Gregory, Commercial Manager South West, based at The Food WorksSW said: “We have had a great response so far, both through the online survey and calls we have had with local businesses.
“The focus of any support programme that may come from this will be specific to food and drink producers and themes are becoming clearer, but we are keen for further input and information from businesses to help us finalise our recommendations to the councils.”
The survey is also identifying suppliers and retailers to help support the development of a publicly available map, highlighting to businesses and the wider community where to buy locally.
The work will provide important data, linking into the wider South West Food Hub initiative – an innovative project aimed to increase local business access to public food and drink supply opportunities in the region.
The survey is coming to an end on Monday, 11 October, so there is still time for food and drink producers to get their businesses mapped.
To take part, businesses should visit bit.ly/FoodBusinessSurvey to complete the online questionnaire or call the Food WorksSW survey team on 01934 315381.
For further information or to get involved in the project, visit The Foodworks website.