If there are two things we get asked above anything else they are “why don’t you have a comprehensive directory of British made goods?” or “can you add my British business to your list of British suppliers?”.
We get at least one email a day along these lines, sometimes many more! From the beginning we have tried to maintain a list of goods that we use, and indeed these are THE most popular pages on our website. Far more than our home page or blog (rather frustratingly!)
Despite all of this pressure we have relented. There are other directories out there and some of them are very good, but people keep insisting that we create one too. So, if for no other reason than to stop the barrage of emails… we are proud to announce the release of our own directory of British made goods!
We have called it the Britipedia and is available here: www.britipedia.co.uk
So that the admin does not become a living hell (another reason we did not want to go down this route) we have made it so that British manufactures and producers can submit their own listings. Listing your British business is totally FREE and we have no plans to change this. Another neat (and unique feature) is that consumers can review the businesses listed.
We have added some businesses to the directory to get stuff started (mainly the businesses from the British Family Fayre) but growth of this new website is now down to you!
Enjoy… and let this be an end to all the emails 😉
I think this is actually a really good idea even though the Kimwetu UK-only directory and the Make-it-British directory have been going for several years now (and deserve a mention! 🙂 ).
Kimwetu like Britpedia is also completely free but I think that market penetrance is really important and the British Family have made a massive media impact in this country and I hope have changed buying habits.
With Kimwetu I personally check each company to ensure they state explicitly that (at least some of) their products are made in the UK and if they don’t state this then I email them to check! This is time consuming, (a.k.a. admin hell!) but I’m happy with the time spent to maintain the integrity.
So I hope that Britpedia is a massive success and that more and more people buy more British!
The more the merrier as far as I am concerned 🙂
Keep up the good work guys and lets try to peruade the UK goverment to back real UK companies with real British investment instead of their previous stupid get rich quick investments such as …. oh.. Iceland, Spain, Greece, China, Eire etc etc (OK, OK, Scrub Eire as I love the Irish) 🙂 best regards Eddie
Dominic your link http://www.kimwetu.com/join/ is not working !!
Hi Eddie – thanks for the heads up! It seems to work fine on Firefox and Explorer- once you’re on the Join us page then click Register to fill in the form. Please let me know if you’re still having issues: info@kimwetu.com
Excellent idea…
Brilliant news.Love the name too..