Larder Bytes What the papers say!

Larder Bytes aims to lift turnover and help local economies

Home Mark Smith Deputy Business Editor The Herald June 25th 2007
Larder Bytes, the pioneering web-based marketplace for primary food producers and their customers, is poised to launch an expansion plan next month that aims to attract 2% of the Scottish population and boost the company's turnover to more than £1m in three years. The Freuchie, Fife-based company, which is supported by Scottish Food & Drink and Scottish Enterprise, has built a low-cost food supply chain that it says will assist local economies and reduce the environmental impact by cutting transport costs and cutting the quantity of waste. The system uses an internet-based, virtual outlet to bring together producers and consumers, and provides a space for local producers to post notices of available products for consumers to browse and purchase from. The company, which is run by Jim Mullen and based on software developed by his son, Nicholas, has been operating for three years, and has so far been focusing on linking local suppliers with restaurants, hotels and small grocery stores. Next month, however, it plans to expand into the consumer market with a home delivery service and it has already established 11 distribution hubs between Fife and Caithness, with future plans to cover all of Scotland. Larder Bytes last year turned over around £65,000, but it expects to increase that figure to £1.1m within three years, based on £25m worth of network sales around the hubs, among 38,000 customers in the Highlands and Fife. Mullen said: "It's the environmental issues that are really driving the business. Recent figures from Defra - the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - tell us that 80% of all food waste that ends up in landfills is avoidable. We believe we can contribute a great deal towards solving this problem by helping reduce greenhouse gases with less waste and less packaging. "It's not uncommon, for example, for food produced here in Fife to end up somewhere in the middle of England. But so little of it ends up being consumed in Fife. Our system guarantees a smaller carbon footprint by lowering the number of food miles. "There are a large number of other benefits as well. It emphasises local produce and so boosts the local economy. It also reduces the delivery times, which helps guarantee fresh produce. "We also believe that the reduction in transport times means that will be able to provide fresh produce directly to the homes of consumers cheaper than it can be bought in the big supermarkets." He added: "Our system manages the information and administration, bringing customers and suppliers together" A pilot project will cover the Grampian Television region to build upon contacts already established, supported by a press and TV marketing campaign. The company said it was also in discussions with a number of local authorities with a view to supplying produce to local schools, hospitals and other public institutions.

Growth industry Scotland on Sunday Spectrum 29/10/2006

SALLY RAIKES
IN THE kitchen at the Fairmont St Andrews Hotel, executive chef Iain Jurgensen is washing a crate of muddy carrots. "Hear that?" he says, snapping a particularly chunky specimen in two. "That's the sound of a good carrot breaking. You wouldn't get that from a supermarket." Dug from the fields of Fife only hours before, the carrot in question could hardly be fresher, and there are plenty more just like it. Jurgensen has just taken delivery of a van-load of carrots, cabbages, cauliflowers, parsnips, onions and curly kale, picked up by Jim Mullen from half a dozen local farms earlier this morning. Mullen, who set up Larder Bytes two and a half years ago, is a man on a mission. Determined to reduce the number of miles that food travels to reach a restaurant or hotel, he has a number of small producers on his books and a growing number of appreciative local chefs to match. "Buying in produce from Holland and Spain makes absolutely no sense when you've got premium produce on your doorstep," he says. Working from his home in Glenrothes, Mullan - with the help of his son Nicholas - delivers to around 20 hotels and restaurants in Fife and Inverness-shire, including such prestigious addresses as the Aviemore Mountain Restaurant, the Fairmont Hotel and the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews, and Balbirnie House Hotel in Glenrothes. With around 26 farmers and producers signed up, the Mullans collect seasonal veg direct from the fields first thing in the morning, then drop off the orders in restaurant kitchens just hours later - in time for serving up at lunchtime. Realistically, though, not everything that a restaurant menu demands can be grown in Scotland, so Mullen collects more exotic ingredients - such as shitake, oyster and chanterelle mushrooms, limes, lemons and pak choi - from Glasgow's fruit and vegetable market before dawn. Kenny Sinclair, Mullen's agent, helps with the haggling and assesses the quality of the produce on his behalf. At 5.30am, the market is cold and dark, but bustling with 40-odd suppliers. They're trading Spanish tomatoes, cucumber and bananas, French strawberries and - with a week to go before Halloween - piles of pumpkins and toffee apples. By 6am, Mullen is en route to Fife, where his first stop is Gordon Henderson's 180-acre farm, near the village of Star. Formerly a market gardener, Henderson now sells a range of vegetables to small retailers and wholesalers, and has a couple of crates of giant cauliflowers - their leaves still wet from the dew - ready for collection. Henderson's farm is in the minority here, for this is supermarket territory. A few fields away, articulated lorries arrive in a steady stream to pick up loads from Kettle Produce - a giant supplier of supermarkets and major retailers, but not, according to Mullen, a threat to what Larder Bytes is trying to achieve. "We are never going to get away from the supermarket, but to have an alternative is no bad thing," he says. "If we can increase the number of farmers who supply us, their confidence will build, they will grow more and a bigger variety of produce and as a result we'll all travel less to get our food." Mullen has three more collections to do before 11am - Milton Haugh farm shop, Crofts farm and Scotherbs, which splits its produce equally between supermarkets and local businesses. Eddie McDonald, at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Centre's Jute Bar, has just started ordering supplies through Larder Bytes, and says the firm reflects his philosophy as chef. "I used to work in a restaurant that had a walled kitchen garden, so I know the difference that cooking with fresh produce can make," he says. "Fresh carrots for a carrot jus gives a much improved flavour." For the bigger restaurants, though, Mullen can only provide a fraction - around 8% - of the food required. "Buying from Larder Bytes is still an ideology," admits Iain Jurgensen at the Fairmont. "I can't phone him up and order 400 fillet steaks, for example. And we're restricted by what our guests ask for - I would love to serve Scottish strawberries in summer and make compôte with it to serve the rest of the year, but there is always going to be someone who wants whole strawberries in December, regardless of the fact that they have been grown in a hothouse in Holland." By persuading internet-savvy, environmentally aware farmers to come on board, however, Mullen does hope to expand what he can offer, and the regions in which he operates. The beauty of Larder Bytes is that it is an online service - chefs can log on at night, scan the produce farmers have available and plan the next day's menu around that. "Before, I would get vegetables that I didn't order, but now I can see at 9pm exactly what I'll be getting by 11am the next day," says Scott Miller, chef at the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews. And it doesn't get fresher than that. For more information, visit www.larderbytes.com . In addition to catering deliveries, the company will be offering a home delivery service in the Fife area by the end of the year This article: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum.cfm?id=1587222006

Fresh and local is best

Sunday Herald, The ,   Oct 2, 2005

A NEW supply-chain management system that is being launched this week to bring local produce to hotels and restaurants in the region provides a creative solution to a number of problems that have plagued farmers, wholesalers and chefs for years. The way the distribution system works in Britain at the moment, it is not uncommon for a vegetable grown in Fife to travel down to middle England and back again. It traverses the country as it makes its way through the various steps of the supply chain before reaching the end user - which could be a hotel or restaurant a mile down the road from the original supplier. The current system means that chefs often don't have upto-date information on the availability of local produce and more often than not, we end up eating imported or lessthan-fresh food instead. This new internet-based system, provided by Scottish firm Larder Bytes, removes the barrier of the long-supply chain. Registered local suppliers post the quantity and availability of the produce they want to sell on a website for chefs to browse and build their menus from. Wholesalers and merchants, which are now being recruited into the system, will also get the opportunity to add the products to the deliveries they are already making to various restaurants and hotels in the area. This means the wholesaler has a bigger drop load and the extra revenue can be used to offset soaring transport costs. At the same time, the farmers or butchers find a more direct delivery route to customers, rather than having to join a distribution system that can involve five or more steps. The system, which is being supported by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Food & Drink, creates a win, win, win situation for everyone involved. Fewer miles travelled is a plus for the environment. Hotels and restaurants are able to boast about their fresh local ingredients to customers. And farmers, merchants and wholesalers benefit from lower transport costs and extra business. Rolling out this system across Scotland could truly transform both the tourism and food industries.

Suppliers cast their net for local food

Sunday Herald, Oct 2, 2005  by Julia Fields .

IT is a common complaint among diners that more often than not the food on their plate has travelled hundreds of miles to its destination. The way the distribution system works in Britain, it is not uncommon for a vegetable grown in Fife to travel down to middle England and back again as it makes its way through the various steps of the supply chain before reaching the end user - a hotel or restaurant a mile down the road from the original supplier. However, a new supply chain initiative, to be unveiled at a Scottish Food & Drink conference this week, aims to transform the way local produce reaches the marketplace and substantially reduce the soaring transport costs that are plaguing food producers and wholesalers amid rising fuel prices. The internet-based system, developed by e-commerce provider Larder Bytes and supported by Scottish Food & Drink and Scottish Enterprise, integrates local producers, wholesalers and merchants, together with restaurants and retail outlets. Registered local suppliers post the quantity and availability of the produce they want to sell on the Larder Bytes website. Chefs from hotels and restaurants then browse through the products, building their menus and shopping lists accordingly. A new feature will show chefs what is coming into season so they can pick produce at its peak. This part of the system solves the problem of chefs often not having enough real-time information about the local produce. Four hotels - including St Andrews Bay - and a number of suppliers in Fife have taken part in a pilot programme for the last two years. However, the scheme is now entering the next phase of incorporating merchants and wholesalers - which will be a key aspect to cutting transport costs. Wholesalers, for instance, could already be supplying a network of 60 hotels and restaurants in a region with imported produce and sending around 10-12 half empty vans a week to make deliveries. By joining the system, they could add local vegetables or even baked goods or meat and fish items to their product list. The wholesaler has a bigger drop load - meaning its vans are not half empty - and the extra revenue can be used to offset transport costs. At the same time, the farmers or butchers find a more direct delivery route to their customers, rather than having to join a distribution system that can involve five or more steps. Jim Mullen, the supply chain management expert behind Larder Bytes, explains: "We manage the information and administration, bringing customers and suppliers together, leaving both to focus on what they do best. It provides a quick and easy one-stop shop, with ordering available 24 hours a day. Distribution is then centralised locally, minimising logistics cost and effort. "We are working towards providing a single drop at a hotel, whether it's meat, fish or fruit and vegetables, and thus avoid the need for several deliveries from half-filled vans. Refrigerated distribution ensures products are delivered fresh from farm to kitchen." Mullen aims to create a centralised information system enabling local distribution from local resources right across the country. It is expected similar systems will be established in Grampian and Dumfries & Galloway before being rolled out.