Torbay Council trials digital hub to support local economy
Torbay Council begins a trial today of a high-tech online supplier hub developed in the South West, with the aim of increasing the amount of money it spends with businesses in the area.
The council is running a pilot of SupplyDevon, a government-funded platform in which Torbay businesses can provide quotes to the council on individual orders valued between £5,000 and £50.000. Torbay businesses get priority, but if no local supplier is available, then Devon businesses will be able to bid.
The goal is to make it easier to for the council to spend money with local businesses, keeping money in the local area whilst reducing the environmental impact caused by goods being shipped long distances. The trial will end on 31 March 2022. If successful, the council hopes it will be able to use the hub permanently.
In the last financial year, less than 10 per cent of the money Torbay Council spent with external businesses – just £5 million – went to those based in Torbay, compared with £48 million spent with suppliers elsewhere.
SupplyDevon is an attempt to help reverse this situation by using artificial intelligence to match small local suppliers to large organisations. The high-tech platform was launched in February this year as a collaboration between Barnstable-based Applegate, Bristol-based software firm Ghyston and the University of Exeter's Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, together with its Centre for Energy and the Environment.
More than 5,000 businesses have signed up to the platform, which has been used by South Devon and Torbay NHS Trust. South Devon College are expected to sign up soon.
Stuart Brocklehurst, CEO of SupplyDevon, explained the benefits of the hub: “Money spent in Devon by big organisations, whether they be public sector or corporates, often tends to boomerang straight back out of Devon again because it gets spent with bigger companies – while the economy of Devon is full of small and medium-sized businesses.
“It’s really easy to go to a really big company for all your needs [but] it’s much harder to find that smaller business that might actually meet your needs much better than a larger company.”
Speaking at a recent council meeting, Councillor Darren Cowell (Independent Group, Shiphay) cabinet member for finance, said: “The objective of this pilot is to keep money in our local economy as opposed to larger companies which may not have Torbay and Devon at their heart.”
Devon businesses can join the SupplyDevon hub for free.
Learn more at applegate.co.uk/supply/devon
