Birchalls bags innovation award for e-commerce platform

Burnley-based wholesaler Birchall Foodservice was crowned winner of the ‘Innovation’ award at this year’s prestigious Burnley Business Awards.

The award, which is judged on digital innovation, technological robustness and creative originality, was awarded to Birchalls because of the success of their e-commerce platform; OrderMate. 

OrderMate was launched in 2021 and provides a complete ordering and product catalogue solution for caterers in the care, education and hospitality sectors. It offers live allergen information, cooking instructions and more for the majority of the wholesalers’ 6,000-strong product range, and allows caterers to order any time of the day from any location. 

Louise Birchall, sales director at Birchalls said “When we developed OrderMate, we wanted to create something bigger and better than a simple ordering platform. We wanted to provide solutions for caterers’ common pain points, such as being able to quickly find live allergen information for products and being able to create shopping lists for different menu cycles. We’re delighted that so many of our customers are using OrderMate and we’re incredibly proud to have won the Innovation award because of it.”

The Innovation award is the fourth honour that the Country Range member has picked up at the Burnley Business Awards after winning medium business of the year in 2015 and 2019 and business of the year in 2017.

The IT and marketing teams at Birchalls are currently working on the next enhancements for OrderMate, including a fully integrated payment portal and a barcode scanning feature. www.birchallordermate.co.uk