A new food and drink marketplace called DoSomethingDelicious.com has been launched by the team behind Savour the Flavours and Flavour Fortnight; Dumfries & Galloway’s regional food network that ceased operations last year.

The new online business community and retail marketplace is designed around food and drink gifts and experiences, providing businesses with a retail space and a package of business support that includes product copywriting, photography and product development.

Do Something Delicious launched last week and Director Liz Ramsay said:
“While Savour the Flavours was hugely successful as a food network, ultimately, like many regional food networks right across the UK, it had a limited lifespan. We’ve taken the best bits of Savour the Flavours and Flavour Fortnight, the parts that gave small businesses a real economic boost, designed a new marketplace around them and we’ve rolled it out across the UK.

“It’s about bringing small businesses together and supporting them in developing innovative products and experiences. Small businesses are often very modest about what they do. We want to help food and drink producers and makers shout that bit louder.”

Food and drink is the UK’s biggest manufacturing sector and marketplace sales platforms can help small businesses overcome traditional barriers to growth, like incorporating wholesale margins and issues of scale.

“Technology and new online sales models are shifting power away from huge brands and retail multiples, into the hands of consumers and producers,” added Liz Ramsay.

“This can only be good for our food and drink sector and for our national economy. Small and micro businesses are the heart and soul of the UK food and drink economy, and we are keen to encourage businesses to test out new routes to market, such as sector defined marketplaces, which have become so influential in other industries, like the craft sector.”

As well as providing a product marketplace, Do Something Delicious incorporates an event and experiences booking facility which enables a Flavour Fortnight approach to business development to be supported all year round.

Liz added:
“Flavour Fortnight was a phenomenally successfully multi-location food festival and it had a huge impact on participating businesses, but it was only a two week window in the year. We know that people want to take part in foodie events and experiences all year round, and Do Something Delicious is an opportunity for the food and tourism sectors to come together to create highly sought after food tourism experiences.”

Do Something Delicious marked Small Business Saturday by scrapping joining fees for businesses applying between 6th December 2014 and 6th January 2015, enabling businesses to test the marketplace format on a commission only basis. Businesses can apply at http://www.dosomethingdelicious.com/apply-now .