One of Cumbria’s leading tourism businesses is branching out with the launch of a new online children’s store called ‘The Veg Patch’, focusing on environmentally friendly products inspired by a love of our great outdoors.
The concept for thevegpatch.uk was developed by Lake District Estates during lockdown 1 to fight back against the impact of COVID-19 on the local visitor economy and to give Cumbrian communities another way to ‘support local’ in the run-up to Christmas and beyond.
Family-owned Lake District Estates is best known as the company behind the much-loved Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway and Ullswater Steamers, as well as several caravan parks, marina holiday apartments and shops operating as ‘Peter Rabbit and Friends®’.
To help build and strengthen the bricks and mortar business, staff came up with the idea of developing a new retail website for kids with an environmental twist. The Veg Patch has now gone live, selling wide range of products with education, family and the outdoors at its heart.
As well as creating new jobs and opportunities in Cumbria, The Veg Patch has a strong environmental ethos and the company is working hard with a select number of UK suppliers to reduce plastics and source ethical, environmentally friendly products.
Head of Marketing & Development at Lake District Estates, Rachel Bell says, “The Veg Patch is a really positive good news story to come out of lockdown, both for local communities and the wider economy,
“Right now, it is more important than ever to help children find new ways to play, learn and discover. Living and working within the Lake District also means we are passionate about protecting the planet we leave for this next generation. That’s why we are working hard with our suppliers to reduce our consumption of plastic waste, source recyclable packing materials and so on.
“We are massively proud to add The Veg Patch as an expansion to our existing business and hope it will strike a chord with locals looking for something more authentic and personal than the big global online retailers.”
The Veg Patch is also joining forces with Cumbria Tourism’s ‘Shop Local’ campaign, giving cardholders from the MyCumbria residents’ reward scheme additional discounts off purchases from thevegpatch.uk
Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, Gill Haigh, adds, “One of the positives to come out of what has been a very challenging year for everyone is the resilience and innovation that businesses have continued to show. Lake District Estates should be rightly proud of continuing to diversify and drive forward with this exciting new business idea, and I hope local people will use it as another way to support local jobs and ‘Make it a Cumbria Christmas’.
She adds, “I can genuinely say I’ve already been busy ordering gifts off The Veg Patch and there are some top quality products which really do showcase the best of what our county has to offer!”
The Veg Patch has a series of strict COVID-19 measures in place to ensure the safe processing, packages and delivery of all products sold on thevegpatch.uk
