Member Article

Award-winning Food Trail develops app-etite for success

An award-winning food trail that has championed Ribble Valley produce and been emulated as far afield as Tasmania now has its own app.

The Ribble Valley Food Trail, launched in 2008 by Ribble Valley Borough Council, features 29 producers, shops and restaurants providing top-quality food, exceptional customer service and excellent provenance: food produced, sourced and consumed locally.

The trail has been a runaway success, winning a raft of awards and critical acclaim, and emulated in Oxford, Northern Ireland and even Tasmania.

And now it has its own free app that will open up a host of benefits to food trail members, food enthusiasts and visitors to Ribble Valley.

Ribble Valley Borough Council leader Stuart Hirst said: “The Ribble Valley Food Trail has been a tremendous success, showcasing the excellent work undertaken by the borough’s food producers, retailers and chefs, while celebrating the area’s remarkable recovery from the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic.

“Ribble Valley food is now acknowledged as among the best in the country, but the challenge is to ensure the trail stays a step ahead by consolidating and improving its e-communications interactivity and making the most of the opportunities afforded by social media.”

New technology is radically changing the way people interact. There has been a massive increase in the number of people using and communicating via the internet, e-mail and mobile phones.

Over 80 per cent of UK adults are now online, with 43 per cent actively using social media and 56 per cent owning a web-enabled phone, while studies show 68 per cent of businesses have created leads from social media.

The Ribble Valley Food Trail app will open up a host of benefits, such as one-click booking, video and digital vouchers.

Geo-located content will also enable vouchers and coupons to be delivered straight to mobile phones near businesses on the trail.

The app, launched by Ribble Valley Mayor Richard Sherras at Mrs Dowson’s Ice Cream in Clayton-le-Dale, was devised by Manchester company 3Mi Advantage, which delivers mobile marketing strategies enabling small and medium-sized businesses to optimise their web sites, generate sales leads and convert them into ongoing customers.

It is available on the AppStore and, in an android version, on Google Play.

Since the launch of the Ribble Valley Food Trail, Clitheroe now hosts a successful annual food festival and has been named Lancashire’s official food town.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .