The United Kingdom startup company, TakeStock, has been described as the “Ebay of the food industry.” The company believes it can find buyers for unused and unsold stocks of food, thereby reducing food waste and decreasing food storage costs. It also hopes to help food companies find bargains to purchase needed products. Essentially, the company offers a digital marketplace for those in the food industry to trade unsold stock.
TakeStock describes its services on its website: “Many businesses in large distributed industries have a problem with stock being unwanted in one location and desired somewhere else. TakeStock.com was created to be an online trading platform to make it easy for owners of stock to sell their unwanted items and to find a buyer efficiently rather than turning to scrap as an option. Takestock is initially focussing on the food manufacturing & agricultural sectors where 600,000 ton[s] of food are wasted each year in the UK alone.”
The website further goes on to add that, “We are an eCommerce platform and believe the future solution to distributed unwanted stock is an emarketplace. That is why we do not advertise on behalf of brands, publish content or produce editorials for the trades we operate in. We focus on trading and helping you turn unwanted stock into cash. TakeStock was set up by 4 founders who have a wide range of experience across multiple tech & food sectors. We think it is unacceptable that nearly [$1.5 billion] in food is wasted each year in the UK and we intend to make an impact on that at TakeStock.”
The CEO and co-founder of TakeStock, Campbell Murray, firmly believes that his company can reduce food waste. He stated that, “Two of our founders have other food industry businesses and were shocked by the waste they saw. When they asked the owners why, it became apparent that there was no easy way to find enough buyers.”
While there is no sign-up charge for users of the service, TakeStock takes a commission from each sale. Like on Ebay, sellers can improve their ratings by receiving positive feedback from their customers.
TakeStock currently has three categories: food & beverage, foodservice & packaging and equipment. The food and beverage category accounts for about 90% of the company’s transactions.
While a number of sellers were located outside of the United Kingdom, the company says it is focusing on “perfecting its business model” in the U.K. before expanding internationally.
A recent transaction of the company included the sale of 10 tons of unbranded Oreo-like cookies that were used by an ice cream brand.
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