They believe the marketing, payment and delivery service enables smaller producers to grow volumes and reach beyond their home districts, perhaps overseas in future.
More than 200 have signed up, all artisan producers of food, drinks and other products like pet foods and health and beauty.
The aim is for producers to get much bigger margins and for consumers to make larger bundled orders of higher-quality goods at competitive prices and delivery fees, Hamish said.
Producers get 90% of the sale price during the coronavirus outbreak while Maker2u takes 10% for website building and maintenance, payment and disbursement and covers the credit card charges.
Payments to producers will be made by Maker2u on the 20th of the month following transactions, Suzy said.
Food producers must have a food safety certificate and everyone has to agree to the terms and conditions Maker2u had drawn up by its legal adviser.
“Most of our clients were operating and selling through other channels, including farmers’ markets, which have now been suspended.
“They, not us, have the relationships with the consumer and couriers and under the present covid-19 regulations they cannot offer cooked foods,” Hamish said.
Maker2u has a freight forwarding and shipping expert on board who is working on the logistics of export sales to countries like Singapore.
“We have built this as a long-term scalable business to include both retail and wholesale on one platform,” Hamish said.
“With no middle-men the makers get much better margins, grow their businesses and employ more people.”
In future hospitality customers will be able to search, compare and source online.
