Five of Plymouth’s most inspirational small businesses – including a brewery, a fashion house and a firm aiming to transform Union Street - have been given a cash boost as part of a national scheme.
Nudge Community Builders, Billy Ruffians, Makers HQ, St Saviours and The Furniture Reuse Project have received funding and support from the M&S and Power to Change programme after wowing judges when they gave presentations at the Devonport Guildhall.
Marks & Spencer and Power to Change are working together to support community businesses to transform their local economies via its national Community Business Challenge. Plymouth residents voted for the firms they wanted to see rewarded and the best were picked to pitch their ideas.
Nudge Community Builders, the firm which is aiming to transform the city’s notorious Union Street and has already turned what was once the 24-hour Clipper Inn into an indoor market with a vegan diner, was awarded the maximum grant of £10,000 plus business skills support, but four other enterprises were rewarded too.
Here is what you need to know about these five amazing companies and what they intend to do now.
Nudge Community Builders
Nudge, which brings empty buildings back into use, will use support from M&S to bring cafe culture to Union Street – by putting seats outside The Clipper.
It will also benefit from help with business planning, visual merchandising and income generation at the former pub it has converted into an indoor market.
The £10,000 funding from Power to Change will also be spent on improving the customer experience and by ensuring the space is more welcoming for families.
Wendy Hart, co-founder at Nudge, said: “We want to turn up the volume on our offer for people to come in and sell from The Clipper – so we’re going to create some eye-catching signage both out the front and back so that people know we’re there, add in some lovely seating for people, and make it more child friendly.
“We’re also going to use the support from M&S to help us value the offer we’ve got so that we can generate more income, perhaps have a mystery shopper come in and tell us what we could change to improve the offer, and also use their expertise in terms of dressing the units and point of sale.”
Vegans in the news
Billy Ruffians
Billy Ruffians was awarded £9,250 and business skills support and will use it to produce more beer and get it to market. The community-owned brewery, based at City College Plymouth, and will also use the support from M&S towards building its customer base and optimising the brewery’s supply chain.
The grant from Power to Change will provide capital investment towards bottling equipment and EcoKegs so Billy Ruffians can produce more beer alongside creating social, environmental and economic impact.
Jack Witek, co-managing director of Billy Ruffians, said: “This support will really help us to leapfrog into the market. We’ve cobbled this brewery together from parts, and we need to get to a point where we’re selling lager into the market in a sustainable way.
“The support will also help us in terms of our branding, design and online marketing. Breweries live or die by their brand these days.”
Makers HQ
Makers HQ was awarded the maximum grant of £10,000 and business skills support and will use it to buy more equipment and create jobs.
The business is a textiles sampling studio in Stonehouse which provides training to members of the community.
The support from M&S will help to upscale production capacity and explore opportunities to make the business more environmentally sustainable.
The grant from Power to Change will be used as investment in new industrial equipment, so that Makers HQ can support the growth of local textile and clothing businesses.
Sophie Glover, studio manager at Makers HQ, said: “We’re going to expand the equipment we have in our sampling studio and bring in some more specialised machines.
“Every machine we get in needs another person to operate it, so not only will we get an influx of machines to be able to do more business, to trade and to make more money – money which goes back into our training unit – we will also have the opportunity to employ more people in the sampling unit.”
St Saviours
St Saviours, a new cultural hub and community space based at the church hall on the Barbican, will enter into a consultation with Power to Change to assess how the trust can provide funding and support for a planned asset transfer and renovation of the building.
Matthew Pontin, director of St Saviours, said: “St Saviours is a space for the public to come and engage with, and we’re managing bookings and events that adhere to the social values we want to be offering.
“We lack capacity – all of our time is voluntary, so support from Power to Change would help us to have the capacity to do more community consultation so that we can better understand who is interested and who wants to get involved.
“For example, we could run ‘conversation cafes’ over the summer to get the doors open, get people in and understand what we could do with the space during the Mayflower commemorations and further into the future.”
Union Street stories
The Furniture Reuse Project
The Furniture Reuse Project received the maximum grant of £10,000 and business skills support and will use the backing to create a coffee shop for the homeless.
The business runs a store on Union Street, Stonehouse, which collects unwanted furniture and supplies it to a wide range of customers, including people who have recently been homeless.
The funding and support from M&S will help with visual merchandising, local marketing and digital media, and outreach to more people and charities in the local area.
Alison Turner, chairperson of The Furniture Reuse Project, said: “We’re going to use the support to open up a large coffee advice area because we often apply for funding on people’s behalf, and it’s nice to be able to do that in a private area where you can have a coffee and a biscuit.
“People come in and tell us their stories and why they need help, so they need privacy and a place where they can feel calm and reassured. The requests we get are increasing day by day, so we desperately need to have that area.”
Fashion in the news
The Community Business Challenge launched in Liverpool in 2018, as part of M&S’s Community Transformation Programme. The retailer is trialling a range of actions in cities such as Liverpool and Plymouth to help tackle the issues that matter most to communities – such as unemployment, skill shortages, loneliness, mental health and wellbeing.
Following the Plymouth leg, the M&S Community Business Challenge will run heats in Bristol and Bradford later in 2019.
Holly Drew, commercial manager, M&S said: “This has been a great opportunity for community businesses across Plymouth and I’m thrilled that we have learnt about so many incredible ventures across the city through this process.
“It has been very heartening to see the engagement from customers and communities, as well as the community businesses themselves, and we’re proud to be raising awareness of some of the amazing work of the shortlisted businesses in our Plymouth store.”
Kate Stewart, Power to Change director of programmes, added: “This showcase event in Plymouth has provided a fantastic insight into the collaborative, creative projects that have communities at their heart across the city.
“The clear ways in which the community businesses supported each other through the whole programme reaffirmed that they were all winners and incredible assets to Plymouth.
“A huge thanks to everyone who took part and particularly to the Real Ideas Organisation who rolled out the challenge in the city.”
Visit Business Live for all the latest business news from Plymouth, the South West and nationally by clicking here
To keep up to date with Plymouth Live's latest news, follow us on Facebook here and Twitter here , or visit our homepage at www.plymouthlive.com
To contact William Telford: william.telford@reachplc.com
