The Farmfetch story: why we're building the one-stop-shop for fine foods

Hi, we’re Dan & Lauren, the founders of Farmfetch - thanks for coming to our website! We wanted to introduce ourselves and provide a bit more context on why we’re creating Farmfetch.

You’ve probably read by now but in short, we’re creating an online marketplace that connects artisan food producers across the UK – whether that’s butchers, fishmongers, veg growers or wine makers – directly to consumers.

So where did this idea come from? First of all - we really love food. Nothing beats heading down to your local market and finding beautiful produce that you know will make a fantastic meal. But it’s not always possible to find exactly what you want, or to access specialities from across the country – like Arbroath Smokies directly from Scotland, or heritage tomatoes from the Isle of Wight. Also, it’s hard to know exactly where the produce comes from.

Second of all, the food industry in the UK is really struggling. Producers are being pressured to meet unrealistic price demands from big supermarkets, who are in turn racking up huge profits at their expense. Our mission is to connect consumers who really care where their food comes from directly with these producers – ensuring fair prices for fantastic ingredients. This extra money can be used to re-invest in more sustainable practices.

Whilst we’re not in the food industry ourselves, we bring 25 years of combined experience in digital marketing. We know how to generate demand online, and we want to match that demand with producers around the country.

From a business perspective, it’s pretty simple. We’ll take care of all the marketing, demand generation and customer experience on behalf of the producers that list on our site. We’ll then operate on a dropship model, sending orders directly to those producers to fulfil. This means we’re able to operate on a commission level that’s affordable for producers and consumers, as we’re not loaded with heavy operational costs.

Aside from building a profitable ecommerce marketplace, we want Farmfetch to be a community for people who are passionate about food, sustainability and supporting British producers. We’ll be creating tons of content alongside our producers, including reviews, recipes, interviews and more.

What's next?

We have big plans from wholesale, to experiences – even as far as starting up our own mega-farm shop, supplying our favourite produce from our site (one step at a time, we know!). For now though, we want to focus on building Farmfetch into an easy to use website with the best produce from across the UK so we’ll keep you posted on the rest in due course.

Thanks for reading - we will have some delicious produce for you on our new website very soon!

All the best,

Dan & Lauren