Speciality Food April 2024

greengrocer still in business on the high street, that a refill shop would marry well with the local offering. Spending time building up a social media presence in the months before opening proved fruitful. “Everyone was keen to get involved and liked the idea of shopping in a different way,” she says, adding that she’s built up a strong band of loyal customers, who followed her when she moved premises to run alongside a nearby social supermarket. “It’s great because they can buy surplus stock from supermarkets here and then buy refills of smaller amounts of things they need to feed their family. It helps them to spread their budgets and reduce food waste further.” To maximise sales at All is Good, Karen knew she needed to have an attractive offering outside of refill. “It was very apparent to me that if we went down the refill only route we would struggle to get people through the door,” she says, adding that she felt people’s perceptions over price, or feeling self-conscious asking for things in specific quantities, might stop thempopping in. “I looked at the audience and decided what I needed to do was to create lots of different reasons for people to come into the shop, then they could discover the refill by accident.” All is Good partnered with local artists andmakers who’d amassed huge followings on social media during Covid lockdowns, allowing them to display their products in the shop, and charging a small commission for any sales. “It really works for us,” Karen says. Changing perceptions A big part of the refill prospect is challenging customers’ preconceptions – particularly that it’s more costly. Angus says he has no doubt the tide is turning. “We have definitely seen a wake up, as people realise they need to do something 44 Fearnley-Whittingstall’s BBC TV series, War on Plastic. “I just thought, I have to do it,” she says, adding that the idea of driving to the nearest city to the refill products she wanted, was senseless to her. Over in Penistone near Sheffield Karen Close, founder of All is Good, a refill and sustainable deli, says she, like Amanda, felt it was pointless in her mission to reduce her carbon footprint, to drive to get the loose goods she wanted – especially as she had a background in retail. Karen was told her ideas were too ‘hippy dippy’, when she operated an organic vegetarian cafe alongside a vegetable box scheme 20 years ago. “I always felt it was the right thing to do, but possibly I was doing it at the wrong time,” she says. However, emerging out of Covid lockdowns, which followed devastating wildfires in Australia, she said she felt an urgency amongst the public to do things differently, and simply had to jump on that sentiment to do better by the planet. “Refill is a bit like flares,” muses Angus Ferguson, who set up one of the UK’s first bottle refilling businesses, Demijohn, in 2004, going on to have three further high street outlets across Scotland and England. During his time in the Army, while stationed in Germany, he says he was wowed bymarkets where shoppers were able to fill up their own bottles with food and drink. Introducing the concept in Edinburgh was, he adds, “revolutionary”. “No one had seen anything like it.” And this includes the local council authority, which was so amazed by the low amount of refuse generated by the business, it suspected Angus had been hiding or dumping it elsewhere! “We really were breaking unbelievable new ground,” he says. It took a little while to get consumers used to filling the business’s attractive keepsake, collectible bottles with their range of premium oils, vinegars, cordials and spirits, but it was a great success. Though in 2017 Angus, noting a decline generally in high street footfall, decided to pivot his business model, switching to ecommerce, last year opening a ‘hub’ in Southwest Scotland where customers can refill, online orders can be fulfilled, and planning takes place for their rollout scheme, creating concessions in farm shops. Currently Demijohn is in five outlets, with expansion planned into 2024. “It’s a nice thing to do,” he explains. “Customers turn up to farm shops, refill, and then they might have a bit of lunch or do some more shopping. It’s a massive win for both sides.” Setting out your stall The area Amanda’s shop is based in is considered, in her county, a bit of a poor relation to some of the touristy seaside hotspots nearby, but she believed, with a great butcher and to help with what is happening with climate change. Everyone doing a small bit really canmake a difference. Refilling went up the list of priorities. It is a difficult thing to do, to remember to clean out your bottle and take it to a shop, but once that becomes a ritual, it’s much easier. We’re finding people are muchmore receptive to it these days. Amanda agrees, saying a big part of what she does is trying to ensure as many people as possible feel comfortable with the concept of refill...to make it friendly and appealing. “A lot of people think shopping packaging-free is expensive. But actually, most of my customers think I’ve forgotten to put things through the till because they’re surprised how cheap it is.” Posting pictures (with permission) of a customer’s shopping, alongside the receipt on social media is a good way to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of this way of filling up a basket. “But the best way to get the message across is for customers to tell friends and family.” One of the ways All is Good gets customers on side is by encouraging them to bring in their own bottles, rather than buying new in the shop, whichmight sound counterintuitive, but “that way the initial outlay is low, and people can slowly work their way through the products,” says Karen. “We have a Net Zero plan for 2035, and a big part of that is initiatives like this, and educating people. There is a lot of demonisation of plastic, but at the end of the day it takes less energy to produce than glass. It’s about how many times you reuse it.” Something else that proves a good selling tool is ensuring customers understand they don’t have to lug home a big bag of flour/oats/spices/ sugar. “We don’t force people to buy 500g or 100g. One of the biggest things we sell is spices. We have a zero- waste spice wall, and people come back to top up their spice jars from home. But if they only want a couple of teaspoons, we can do that. It makes a difference.” Stocking for success Getting your offering right is essential. Too little refill stock and customers might perceive that it’s not worth visiting to top up their weekly shop...while too much will leave you with the mammoth task of shifting stock that, unpackaged, likely has a lower shelf life than if it were sealed in plastic. Amanda says she’s surprised that her biggest sellers in food and drink are snacks, sweets and chocolates, though this tallies with industry insight, which cites both sustainability, and ‘treatingmoments’ as big trends for 2024. “Honestly, it’s a shocker. I thought I’d be selling more pasta, rice and pulses.” Amanda’s shop offers a ‘posh pick andmix, with customers able to choose fromdifferent nuts and fruits covered in chocolate. “And we have a range of organic and Fairtrade chocolate buttons fromCocoa Loco. They’re all handmade. That’s a really lovely UK-based family business. We @specialityfood KAREN CLOSE ALL IS GOOD AMANDA LEWIS REFILL ANGUS FERGUSON DEMIJOHN COMMENTATORS W orking towardsminimising waste, or even aspiring to a zero-waste future, is something fine food retailers are increasingly factoring into their long- termbusiness strategies. This could involve stopping waste at source in a circular economy by returning containers to manufacturers for reuse, cutting the amount of waste generated on premises, and (on a growing scale), reducing the amount of waste being handled by customers. There’s a lot to be said for refill retailing as a way to achieve this green vision. Although the refill market seems to have had its ‘boom’, many retailers are reporting strong success, achieved by folding a refillable option into their existing offering, while creating bold, exciting retail ‘hooks’ that entice customers through the door, where they can then discover the process of buying loose goods, while reducing their packaging footprint, and often savingmoney. Going green Amanda Lewis, of Refill in Leiston, opened her shop six weeks before Covid, having been inspired by Hugh People want to knowwhat they can do to help, tomake our lives better, and to make the Earth a better place to live HUGH FEARNLEY-WHITTINGSTALL REFILL: IS ITSTILLWORTH INVESTING IN? It can help stores be more flexible, while minimising waste for retailers and consumers. Welcome to the new refill revolution