Huge success for Food Town launch
Almost 5,000 people are estimated to have attended the Wellington Food Town launch on Saturday, December 2, making the event an overwhelming success.
The launch day marked the official start of a five-year project to turn Wellington into the ‘Food Town’ of Somerset, much as Ludlow is recognised as a centre of food excellence in the Midlands.
Visitors to the event came from as far afield as Plymouth, in Devon, Worcester, Stafford, and Bognor Regis, and even some from South Africa - although some were already staying locally.
Around 40 local food stalls were set up in a giant marquee in the car park of Wellington Conservative Club, in the town centre, showcasing everything from Christmas cakes to bison sausages, and food co-operatives to recycling information.
Producers and retailers were able to talk to visitors about the values of their produce and how to obtain the best from it, and there were also cookery demonstrations by local chefs, compered by ITV West presenter Peter Rowell.
Produce was also on sale and one estimate put the value of sales on the day at approaching a staggering £100,000, plus whatever else was spent in the town itself.
The flood of visitors into Wellington for the day meant public car parks were much busier than usual, and many other businesses in the town centre also benefited from the extra footfall, with some extending their opening hours to cope with the additional volume of customers.
Now, the food town steering group is turning its thoughts to a series of events in 2007, culminating in a planned two-day food festival in the early autumn.
Wellington Food Town steering group chairman John Cottrell said: “The response for our launch event was simply breathtaking.
“By anybody’s reckoning we have made an excellent start with the initiative and we are all delighted with the incredible turnout of visitors.
“We have achieved everything we set out to do initially, which is to put Wellington’s food firmly on the map by drawing people into the town from a wide area to see and sample the top quality range of produce available in the catchment zone, while at the same time creating an opportunity for all the other businesses in the town to benefit from extra trade.
“The launch will have a long-lasting effect because many of the producers have generated inquiries from people who will come back to buy from them again and again.
“We were also pleased to see so many visitors being encouraged to look around the town while they were here and I know some of the shops were so busy that they could not close when they normally would.
“This was just a ‘taster’ for the Food Town brand and we plan to build on this success with more events throughout the coming year.
“I would like to praise everybody who took part and helped in the launch and also to invite them all to attend a ‘thank you’ reception which we will hold toward the end of January, when we will start to talk in more detail about the 2007 series of events.”
The Wellington Food Town catchment area takes in much of Somerset and a large chunk of Devon, an containing eight Rick Stein Food Heroes and dozens of other award-winning producers.
Wellington Food Town is organised by Wellington Economic Partnership in conjunction with Taunton Deane Borough Council and Wellington Town Council, and is supported by Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Trade, Wellington Farmers’ Market, and Somerset Food Links.
More information is available from Nicky Saunter at Somerset Food Links on 01458 241401 or email nickys@foodlinks.org.uk or by logging on to www.wellingtonfoodtown.blogspot.com.

• Our photographs show (left) Wellington Economic Partmership chairman John Pragnell with a Wellington Food Town reuseable shopping bag, and (right) French chefs Denis Guillemin and Patrick Robert giving a cookery demonstration under the watchful eye of compere Peter Rowell, from ITV West.