Did you know that if everyone in the Test Valley region spent £5 a week in a local, independent business it would inject an extra £32million into the local economy? 

To understand the business case for shopping locally, in its simplest terms, you only have to look at campaigns such as the Totally Locally; their simple message - spend a fiver a week in your town and it will help your community thrive and make the place you live that little bit better. We estimate that if everyone who lived within the Test Valley region spent £5 a week in a local, independent business, instead of a big brand supermarket or online retailer, that would be an extra £32million into the local economy each year.. It’s staggering isn’t it? 

At Local Zero we want to make shopping with local businesses more convenient, easy, accessible and affordable. This is an ambitious undertaking, but we are confident that we can make it happen.

Our ambition for a 100% zero waste, locally produced grocery box. 

Top of our list of priorities is to work collaboratively with local growers and makers, to supply grocery boxes to our customers, with as many of the contents produced within Stockbridge and the surrounding area as possible.  From community growers, to small holders and micro-farmers, our ultimate goal is to create a truly cooperative venture, providing seasonal, locally grown and/or made produce, delivered to the doorstep, sustainably and with zero waste.

Local growers/producers WANTED! 

To make this ambition a reality we are looking for local suppliers in all shapes and guises. If you are a vegetable grower or food producer located within 20 miles of Stockbridge, Hampshire and you share our vision of working collaboratively to deliver a sustainable, zero waste, locally grown produce to customers across Test Valley, we’d love to talk. You can get in touch with us by registering your interest via our website.

A collaborative approach. 

As ever, at Local Zero HQ we have a collaborative approach in everything we do and this week we have been working on further developing our network of supplier partners. These relationships with local business are so important to us; the backbone of our mission is to support independent businesses, for 3 reasons: 

1. We want to minimise our impact on the environment. By only buying from local suppliers we reduce food miles, which in turn reduces the need for multi-vehicle logistics, reducing harmful emissions from the supply chain, improving sustainability and cost-effectiveness.

2. We want to boost the local economy. We know that spending with local, independent businesses has a direct impact on the financial wellbeing of the wider community. 

3. We want to build meaningful connections with our local community. In short, we want to be on first name terms with our suppliers! We want to understand their ‘why’ and help them to sustain and grow their businesses.

Tried & Supplied 

With all this in mind, now is the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Domini Hogg.  

A founding partner of Local Zero, Domini has an unusual combination of experience in both food and software. Having started out advising hotel and restaurant chains on menus, she then led the client team in a fast-growing marketing software start-up, advising big name brands on marketing, data and growth strategy. With her business, Tried & Supplied, she is blending her love of food with her knowledge and experience of software and efficient processes to create localised routes-to-market for sustainable food production. Can you see how this fits perfectly with the Local Zero mission? 

Together we can make a difference….

Local Zero and Tried & Supplied are two platforms that share an ethos to support local, sustainable produce and facilitate a local route to market. 

By collaborating with Domini, we can make the most of her expertise when it comes to dissecting the eco-credentials of our local suppliers, working together to establish suitable criteria to make sure they fit the bill.  Once we are happy that they meet the requirements, our supplier partners will benefit not only from an additional revenue stream via Local Zero orders, but they also have the potential to join the Tried & Supplied network. 

Sustainability in the local food chain. 

We recognise that local, sustainable produce often means smaller quantities and varying product availability and for this reason, having a sole supplier for things like fruit and vegetables just isn’t viable, but, using the Tried & Supplied platform technologies will enable us to aggregate local demand for delivered groceries, allowing multiple suppliers to fulfil demand collectively dependent on availability, making our vision for a cooperative grocery box, one step closer to becoming a reality, all we need i s you, the local suppliers!

Sound good? Register your business now!