Store opens rent-free under ‘Incubator’ retail program to boost Shepton Mallet High Street

Two Somerset pupils have opened their own family-run farm shop in Shepton Mallet to breathe new life into the high street.

Sisters Laurel, ten, and Rosie, seven, are the first to take part in an ‘incubator programme’ in the market town.

Their produce business will occupy rent-free space in the newly renovated Market Place for nine months to see if it is viable.

Local charity Interim Spaces has transformed the area thanks to a quarter of a million pound injection. It specializes in taking over defective and vacant commercial and high street buildings and transferring them to community use.

Laurel and Rosie hope to make The Little Farm Shed a success.

The girls were selected from 27 contenders to start their retail project, which started as a way for them to earn some pocket money by selling produce from their grandfather’s farm.

Laurel said: “It was quite busy. I never thought I’d be working behind a cash register, but when we were younger we used to play shop and now it’s like a dream come true.”

The idea for the business came from selling eggs and produce from their grandfather’s farm to raise pocket money to use at the Glastonbury Festival.

Their business quickly grew from serving family and friends to serving the broader community.

Laurel claims to be the brains behind the business and Rosie has created the fruit and vegetable boxes for delivery. Since then, they have been working with local suppliers and expanding their offering.

As the company has grown, it has become a family business, with support from their parents and younger brother Leonard.

Laurel said, “We started knocking on our neighbors’ doors and asking friends and family if they wanted to buy some eggs?”

Their mother Jordan added: “We then started delivering to the rest of Shepton Mallet and went to Frome, and the Midsomer Norton areas and people were asking if we sold vegetables too.”

Dan Simon, director of Interim Spaces, said: “The Incubator’s process is to take a business that has no retail experience whatsoever, a business that has the potential to thrive on the high street, and give them the funding and support give them what they need. need.”

Mr Simon continued: “Of all the finalists, The Little Farm Shed Shop had a great story and was a great example of a small business that was doing well and needed help to get to the next level.”