West London vegan supermarket GreenBay is celebrating five years of business, during which time it has seen over 50,000 customers and sold over half million products.
The self-funded shop, which claims to be the UK’s first omnichannel vegan supermarket, was founded by Paula Alcalde and Anderson Caicedo who came to the UK from Spain and Colombia respectively and after meeting and becoming vegan were unable to find everything they needed in one place.
“We struggled to find products suitable for our lifestyle,” Alcalde explains. “I remember having to go to different shops, health food stores, online shops and supermarkets to find various vegan products, and it was very time consuming and inconvenient: a bit of a nightmare! So the idea for GreenBay was born.”
Now with both a physical and online presence, GreenBay employs ten members of staff and is launching its own vegan food range to help plant-based products become more mainstream. “Our mission is to make it easy, fun and convenient for people to make better choices, by educating them on the positive impact that small changes can make,” says Alcalde.
Our mission is to make it easy, fun and convenient for people to make better choices
GreenBay positions itself as a ‘safe haven for vegans, inspiration for plant-based people as well as a non-judgmental space’ for the curious, the store carries over 1,200 products, many of which it claims, are ‘impossible’ to find elsewhere.
“I’ve been honoured to help small businesses to introduce their innovative products to the market through GreenBay,” says Caicedo. “It’s been rewarding, and I feel so proud to be a leader in a company that cares about the customers, suppliers and its employees. As a result, we have developed strong relationships with our suppliers, our employee turnover rate is very low, and our customers feel valued.”
In 2021, GreenBay won the Feefo Gold Trusted Service Award for its outstanding customer service.
