About Us
We (Lisa & Rick Sanderson) are a husband and wife team who are passionate about the local food movement.
The idea for buy-LOCAL.net was born in December 2005. We had been buying our vegetables through a local veg box scheme
for some time whilst trying to buy the rest of our weekly groceries from our local butchers, bakers, delis and farmers markets.
We believed passionately that we were doing the right thing, both for our health, our local community and the environment,
but this required dedication and organisation. We still sometimes found ourselves drawn to the bright lights of the ‘one stop shop’
supermarkets. We thought there must be a way of making it easier for everyone to buy local produce. And that was it,
what was clearly missing was convenience.
Farmers Markets generally happen once a month or mid-week. Some local produce finds its way into smaller community stores,
and even now some of the larger supermarkets, but it has to be available 24/7 for a more demanding modern customer.
And most importantly, the customer must have the opportunity to buy a whole range of local & ethical produce that
fills their whole basket.
We are realistic enough to know that not everything can be produced on our doorstep, so we believe in supporting our local shops.
We all depend on the community that is closest to home, and surely it makes sense to support local businesses who will in turn
re-invest back in to the local economy.
In June 2006 we were awarded with the Farmers Weekly Magazine ‘Food Miles Hero’ certificate for a business making a difference to
lower food miles, something we feel passionately about. Shortly following our website launch in October 2006 Bedfordshire County
Council awarded us with the ‘Tastes of Bedfordshire Food Mark’ for our commitment to supply local produce in our area.
In 2007 speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference, Conservative Party Leader David Cameron cited buy-LOCAL.net as an example of
an ethical and sustainable community business - “buy-LOCAL.net is putting local producers and shoppers together and creating a
market based on consumer demand.”
In May 2007 were delighted to have been Gala Finalists in Shell’s ‘liveWIRE’ competition for Young Entrepreneurs, recognising
what we had achieved over the last 18 months. Stu Anderson of Shell gave buy-LOCAL his vote of confidence by stating we
have “An excellent and well researched sustainable business model with a genuine and positive social impact”
We were short-listed for East Anglia in UKTV’s ‘Local Food Heroes’ national competition for 2007 and have received terrific
support from EEDA over the last few years in developing our new award winning website.
In September 2007 we successfully sold our first franchise, with one of our suppliers investing in the Bedford business we had
worked hard to develop. We now want to spread the local food message by growing a franchise network of local food heroes throughout
the UK and give our customers a truly local alternative to the usual weekly shop!
buy-LOCAL.net – Home Delivery of Local Food that’s Better by Miles!