For all of the challenges created by the pandemic, it did at least help food-delivery services like Future 50 member Goodery become established. Now the Norwich-based organic-food specialist is looking to develop a physical presence in the city as well.
“As people are becoming more confident shopping in person, we're looking to meet that need and find ourselves a spot where we can sell in person,” explains Goodery’s Josh Smith. “We're looking for local businesses that aren't using their shops at the moment, to see if we can do pop-ups.”
Goodery began by delivering food boxes to NHS staff in the first Covid lockdown, before working with Arthur’s Organics to offer quality organic fruit and veg deliveries to everyone in the Norwich area. It expanded its product range to include produce from local makers. “Everything from kimchi and kombucha to chocolate and wine,” Mr Smith explains.
As Goodery grew, it was able to attract EU funding to get two electric vans. “They've been great,” says Mr Smith. “A real attraction for a lot of our customers is that they hear the nearly silent vans coming and they know their deliveries are not actually costing the climate.”
He adds that the combination of Goodery's tree-planting programme, which has planted more than 3,000 trees, and the zero-emission vans means the company is past carbon neutral and offsets more carbon than it generates.
“We are to trying to reach new areas of Norfolk, which will hopefully become easier with new infrastructure in place for electric vans,” says Mr Smith. "We are also looking to provide local growers with new outlets around the county at local markets.”
This is crucial for the long-term organic vision of Goodery. “Our plan is to support the next generation of local organic farmers,” Mr Smith says. “At the moment it's a hard game to grow organically. For growers to take the step, they need backing and they need to have the customer there - so our vision is to drive demand for good local organic produce, so this supply can step in and have confidence, so local farmers can take the bold step and go organic.”
For more information, see www.goodery.co.uk
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