Better Food recently spruced up its Bristol Whiteladies Road store, reopening with an updated look, new features including a packaging-free wall, and extended product lines.
The new state-of-the-art refill station offers over 40 organic dried goods — cereals, grains, pulses, nuts, seeds and dried fruit — as well as organic loose-leaf teas, household goods and wine.
“We’ve repainted and rebranded everything, improved our ‘story telling’ and organic messaging, and improved the flow within the store,” explains Lucy Gatward, Better Food’s marketing manager. “We’re particularly pleased with our household refill station, filled with eco-liquids from Fill, which we get in returnable 200l drums, saving on the invisible waste of most household refills.
The dispensing units are made by Refillco, a young entrepreneurial company specialising in environmentally friendly technology solution. We’re delighted to be working with them.”
The shop, which opened in 2010, has introduced Ermintrude, a new refill machine which dispenses organic whole and semi-skimmed milk supplied from reusable kegs by Bruton Dairy, so there’s no wasted packaging.
Going forward, as many refillables as possible will be central to our offering. We’re always looking for sensible, innovative and environmentally friendly ways of improving the way we do business
There is also an increased range of chilled vegan products, with new cheeses, seitan-based goods, tofu and tempeh; and a new-look deli counter.
“This refit has brought our Whiteladies Road store up to the same standard as our biggest store in St Werburghs, and we’ll be rolling it out at our Wapping Wharf store later in the year,” says Gatward. “Going forward, as many refillables as possible will be central to our offering. We’re always looking for sensible, innovative and environmentally friendly ways of improving the way we do business.”
“We had a really busy and successful first weekend, and so far the feedback has been extremely positive, from customers who already knew and loved the store, to people who’d never previously stepped across our threshold,” she adds.
To celebrate the opening of the revamped store, Better Food hosted an evening with some of its favourite local and organic suppliers who provided samples and tastings, and also received a visit from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (pictured) who took a look at the new refill areas.
