Entrepreneur Katie Herring, 34, recently opened Tribe Zero-Waste in Faringdon. The shop invites customers to bring their own containers to refill on essentials like lentils, rice, and beans as well as washing detergents and liquid soap, all to cut pointless plastic from shopping.
Miss Herring, who grew up in Wantage and used to run Oxford's Cultivate 'veg van', has run her refills business since 2018, doing pop-up events, market stalls and home deliveries around Oxfordshire, but she always dreamed of having a bricks-and-mortar shop.
She was able to realise her dream with the help of an Oxford City Council scheme to fill empty shop units across Oxfordshire after the Covid-19 pandemic, called Meanwhile in Oxfordshire. Katie – who went to King Alfred's School in Wantage and City of Oxford College – has taken over a unit previously occupied by the town cheesemonger, which closed several years ago.
"I originally started my business because people in Wantage told me they wished they had a refill shop near them” explains Katie, “and I saw a way that I could help make a real difference in the world and tackle pollution.
Everything I've done since then has been because people have asked for it – from stocking more organic products to popping up at Wolvercote market and doing home deliveries. The people in Faringdon have been so supportive of my regular market stall here in the past year, and it’s so exciting to have a shop here: I finally have a permanent base where I can help more people cut plastic waste and make a bigger impact to help the environment.”
Oxford City Council launched its Meanwhile in Oxfordshire scheme in 2021 with £1.9m funding from the Government’s Getting Building Fund. Working with Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) and on behalf of the county's district councils, the city commissioned social enterprise Makespace to run the project. The aim was to provide affordable premises to accommodate more than 100 organisations and creating or securing at least 300 jobs across Oxfordshire.
The project was a response both to the devastating effect that the pandemic had on high streets but also years of growing competition from online retail. Makespace identified the former cheese shop in Faringdon as an ideal space and reached an agreement with the landlord to rent it out. Miss Herring expressed her interest in taking on a unit as part of the scheme and was matched as an occupier for the shop by Makespace and Faringdon Town Council.
The unit, which had been empty for some time, needed significant refurbishment and Makespace carried this out, as well as decorating the space, installing new electrics and a new sink which Miss Herring needed in order to run a food business in the space.
Rather than having a standard rental agreement for the shop – which would normally have a five or ten-year minimum period, Miss Herring has signed a much less onerous one-year licence agreement with Makespace, and Makespace has been able to charge her less than the standard market rate for the shop space, which would have been so expensive that she said she may never have taken the risk.
"I'd always hoped to have a shop to run my business out of, but if I'd had to do it the normal way I'm not sure I ever would’ve been able to do it” she explains, “because the costs can be so high it's an enormous gamble, and you can end up in serious debt.
This scheme is absolutely perfect for me because it lets me test the waters in a really low-risk way, and gives me a realistic amount of time to build up my customer base and find my feet: if it all goes well, then hopefully I can take on the lease for a longer period of time or even move to a bigger property – and maybe another young entrepreneur can take my place in this unit."
Mayor of Faringdon Kiera Bentley added: "Faringdon Town Council is keen to support new traders and it's great to see this shop open with support and collaboration from Makespace. Katie has built up a regular customer base by attending our markets so we are delighted shoppers can pop into the shop now any day to top up."
