Ryan | 21 July 2009

Italian version | French version | Spanish version

gourmetKAZOO offering traditional European food & drink artisans a free taste of web 2.0

The unveiling of a new social community promises to bring needed support to the struggling artisan food & drink sector in Europe. gourmetKAZOO offers small producers of traditional regional products a way to build more sustainable businesses for themselves by using the social community to interact in meaningful ways with the online food world. Led by Ryan Haugarth, INSEAD MBA graduate with extensive international business experience in global companies such as Best Buy & ING, the team behind gourmetKAZOO has deep expertise covering business, web & marketing. European producers are now invited to join the project for free. 

gourmetKAZOO is now welcoming the public to join the beta launch of its online social community project focused on supporting the small independent producers of high quality regional food and drink specialties from all corners of Europe. Producers in the gourmetKAZOO community are given free access to create their own online profiles with text, pictures and even video which allows them to properly tell their stories, display their products and interact with foodies worldwide. By bringing together the best artisan producers of regional gourmet products from around Europe, gourmetKAZOO is able to help each producer achieve a level of online exposure that they are not able to attain on their own.

Small European food & wine producers have been interacting with and selling directly to customers in their local markets for hundreds of years. Today, the internet makes it possible for them to accomplish the same thing on a global scale. While most producers today in Europe have a website, these sites are outdated, impossible to find and are not capable of supporting the interaction and transparency of information in line with consumer's expectations in the age of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Fine food lovers from around the world are interested more than ever in understanding the origins of what they eat. For producers, it is no longer sufficient to simply label something as organic or artisanal; consumers expect more information along with unbiased ratings and reviews to help them make their purchasing decisions. By bringing foodies and artisan producers together into one community, gourmetKAZOO facilitates interactions between these groups in the virtual world similar to how the interactions have occurred for hundreds of years in the real world. 

Ryan Haugarth, INSEAD MBA graduate who left behind his carrier in globally recognized companies such as Best Buy and ING Group to found gourmetKAZOO has this to say: "Small producers in Europe are currently missing the huge potential offered by the internet. For too long, these producer's have been held hostage by organizations that charge the producers for a stamp of approval and by distribution channels that put pressure on artisans to sacrifice quality standards in order to meet volume and price demands. We created gourmetKAZOO to give outstanding small producers a way to share their passion and dedication to quality with the online world. It is a tool for them to reach the consumers who really value products of the highest quality. We are giving producers a way to take control over their reputations and for customers to be the final judges of quality."   

Oliver Morbey, gourmetKAZOO manager for the UK & Ireland adds: "gourmetKAZOO allows small producers who may be interested in exploring export options a unique opportunity to gauge the international interest level of their products, as well as gain valuable feedback from the global Foodie community."

Mauro Manzone, member of a small family producing Barolo wine in the Lange hills of Italy found it suprisingly easy to build his vineyard's profile on gourmetKAZOO: "Your website is wonderful. Interacting with our customer base online is essential for the future of our business and gourmetKAZOO gives us the tools to do so."

Christophe Devorges created a profile of his family's vineyard located in the Jura region of France. He shared the vineyard's profile on gourmetKAZOO with his somewhat less web saavy father who "was extremely impressed with how beautiful and professional their information was presented on the site."

Ryan Haugarth has bigger plans for gourmetKAZOO, saying: "We plan in the near future to offer support to producers who wish to sell their products directly to international consumers without the need for additional middlemen. Incorporating an e-commerce and a shipping solution that works within the confines of various international food & alcohol import regulations is a challenge, but we are close to being able to offer Europe's small producers a complete solution."

For additional information on the project, contact Ryan Haugarth or visit www.gourmetkazoo.com

 


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Contact: 

Ryan Haugarth, co-founder & CEO
gourmetKAZOO.com
+33 970 40 61 06
press@gourmetkazoo.com

 

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