City’s food pioneers to open more zero-waste store sites
IT started as a small south side social enterprise aiming to create a more sustainable food system for Glasgow.
Ten years later, Locavore has two organic zero-waste supermarkets in the city – and now it has launched a bid to create eight more across Scotland.
The £3 million Bigger Plan scheme will create 90 jobs over the next two years and aims to encourage people to buy more local, organic food.
Founder and managing director Reuben Chesters said it is hoped the £3m required will come from a mix of loans and crowdfunders.
He is also hoping to crowdsource ideas for the locations of the new supermarkets.
Mr Chesters said: “Our Bigger Plan is our necessary next step to do our bit to fix the myriad problems we are facing as a society. “We need to tackle climate change faster and with more energy and imagination than we are.
“We need to build a fairer and more sustainable economy that’s not reliant on big businesses which drain our communities of their wealth.
“We also need to build a society and communities that are people-friendly and bring back to life local communities and our high streets which have been in decay for decades.
“We need a little less conversation and a little more action – the Bigger Plan, this is our next action.”
Locavore plans to open its new supermarkets alongside scaling up its supply chains and becoming a carbonnegative company.
The social enterprise currently has two shops in Glasgow, grows organic produce, and delivers veg boxes across central Scotland. Its aim is to build an alternative food system that gives shoppers the chance to ditch unsustainable supermarkets and instead choose to buy more local, organic food.
Locavore shops sell a range of foods and goods with most of the things people want from a supermarket available.
Where it differs from a conventional supermarket is its dedication to sustainable sourcing with a focus on local, organic and zero-waste products which support progressive producers rather than multinationals.
People can get in touch through the Locavore website to “request a Locavore” in their local community.
Implementing the Bigger Plan is expected to directly create 90 new jobs over the next two years, paying above the Living Wage, while creating and supporting many more in the wider food economy. It will create new opportunities for Scottish growers, convert more land to organic agriculture, and provide much-needed routes to market for smaller ecological producers.
The business is asking supporters to invest in loan stock, with its website now asking people interested in investing to register.
Mr Chesters added: “We think crowdsourcing potential locations and the finance we need is a really important element of our Bigger Plan.
“We want to scale up and we want to do this really fast, but we want to do it while becoming part of the local communities we are in, instead of becoming another faceless supermarket. Being invited by the local community seems like a good starting point.”
Locavore Bigger Plan is available to download from its website alongside details on requesting a Locavore Shop and investing in the social enterprise.
We need to tackle climate change faster and with more energy and imagination