When I heard about IbiZenEco – a fantastic organic delivery service ‘to your door’ I reminisced of the times I used Riverford Organic vegetables back in the UK. What a small world to find out the founder of Ibizenco previously worked for them and brought this wholesome concept to Ibiza. When Ben Gorman and his wife Rebecca moved to here in 2012, he wanted to offer something similar to the good people of Ibiza and helped create IbiZenEco with two other partners (who are expert growers), then he took over the business fully in 2013.

“We have always adored Spain and the Spanish life and knew we wanted to stay…so we decided to hop on the ferry to Ibiza, not knowing anybody here, with no jobs to go to and with nowhere to live or even a hotel booked. We guessed it was sink or swim. We love a challenge but moving to Ibiza in April with no accommodation arranged is not something I would ever recommend! However, luckily for us we found a perfect place with a fantastic local Ibicenco landlord almost immediately…it was obviously meant to be. We bought our house Casa Madera the next year and we’ve never looked back since…”

Before moving to Spain, Ben worked in marketing for many years at ‘Riverford Organic Vegetables’ and was part of the team who transformed it from a small organic farm into the UK’s largest and most successful vegbox scheme.

“When I joined Riverford there were two people in the marketing team and we worked out of a dilapidated portacabin stuck in a field…on mud encrusted computers! When I left there were 12 in the team, a huge office with 150 staff, boardroom, a staff restaurant and a very successful public restaurant! I was solely responsible for launching and creating marketing campaigns for new franchises and launched over 40 all over the UK. I did everything from creating 1 million leaflet drops to walking around Manchester centre with a wheelbarrow full of carrots in fancy dress. In the time I was there, we went from 8000 veg boxes to around 30,000. I was also responsible for all the email marketing and in 2008 alone, I sent over 4 million emails creating gross revenue of over 2.1 million pounds.”

IbiZeneco’s philosophy is more a promise – to provide locally grown, seasonal, freshly picked organic goodness, with 100% love. In every way possible they support local farmers and source Ibiza’s very own organic produce. The customer involvement and feedback is at the heart of Ben’s business, part of the service includes weekly newsletters and recipe ideas…

“Our customers are wonderful, loyal and so supportive. We receive so many lovely emails and photos telling us how pleased they are with their deliveries. In fact just yesterday a new customer told us that of all the veg basket services she had tried around the world, we were by far the best! It’s so rewarding and gives us a real boost. We want to involve our customers as much as possible. We call ourselves a family for a reason – we are absolutely not one of those faceless companies! We try to provide as much useful information to our customers (and potential customers) as we can and the newsletters are a great way of doing just that and at the same time promoting IbiZenEco whilst hopefully providing an interesting read! We provide recipes based on the basket contents that week so they are relevant and helpful. We also try and include unusual recipes that people might not necessarily think of and with items that sometimes get avoided and left at the back of the fridge. That’s another great thing about the baskets, they improve your cooking as you are cooking and preparing fruit ‘n’ veg that you might not necessarily choose yourself”.

This week IbiZenEco are launching two new hampers with delicious organic goodies from the very best Ibiza’s producers. These make for a great gift or welcome hamper for holiday villas:
“The ‘Welcome’ basket is full of everything a guest could need to see them through the start of their holiday. From bottles of wine to freshly baked bread to coffee to a seasonal fruit basket, it’s all here.

The ‘Only Ibiza’ basket is full of the most delicious products Ibiza has to offer and all 100% made here on our beautiful little island paradise. From honey to Hierbas to cheese to crisps. So no more ’empty fridge syndrome’ or tedious shopping trips when all you want to do is start enjoying the sunshine! Eat, drink and be merry as we say!

Also watch out for the IbiZenEco newsletters where LoveFoodIbiza will be contributing delicious recipes using their seasonal produce…