Family-run second eco-shop

Mother and daughter Stamena and Leny Dimitrova have taken a leap of faith and are opening their second South West organic store in the Cotswolds town of Tetbury, writes Fiona Scott.

The couple first opened the doors to their sustainable grocery cafe and deli in Bath at the height of the pandemic with just 134 products, fulfilling a dream to offer an alternative shopping experience for customers who wanted to embrace sustainability in their daily lives.

Four years on the team now offers over 1,500 single-use plastic-free, local (where possible) sustainable items. Now they have decided to expand their business into Tetbury and are opening their second store at 21 Market Place at the end of this month.

Stamena said: “The unwavering support and enthusiasm of our community in Bath has been our greatest source of strength. We are constantly inspired by the passion for sustainability that our customers – both new and returning – bring through our doors.

“Their loyalty and encouragement has fueled our growth and kept us excited and hopeful for the future. We did some research and felt it was time to commit to a new refill, and we look forward to what the next four years of plastic-negative shopping will bring to both the city of Bath and this beautiful South Cotswold market town.”

The couple have always dreamed of expanding their brand and it was a fact-finding trip in August that led them to make the decision that Tetbury should be the location for their second shop and bistro.

Leny said: “We intend to open several refill stores in the South West over time. We’ve always loved Tetbury and we came across a unit that was becoming available a few months ago.

“We are attracted by the independent trade scene, the beauty of the Cotswolds and the strong desire of people who live in the area to preserve and protect their environment. We also want to build links with local producers as, where possible, we sources products from the local community.”

Stamena is a globetrotter who was born in Bulgaria and then spent many years in South Africa and quickly realized that entrepreneurship was her forte. She set up and ran several businesses and then came to the UK in 2016 and a year later her daughter came along to study.

Leny has taken after his mother in also being an entrepreneur from an early age. She doesn’t just talk about sustainability, she also walks the walk. She has experience in pickling and fermenting foods and she loves to cook.

Leny said: “I started my first business when I was 15 which was a dog and pet sitting business serving clients throughout Johannesburg where I lived. I grew this business until at the age of 22 I moved to Bristol for to complete a BSC at the University of Bristol.

“Along with my studies I worked in the hospitality sector and realized that I learned, quite organically, a lot about consumer behaviour. As I am also very passionate about healthy eating and living sustainably.

“Since being in the UK, my mum and I have felt increasingly physically ill on every trip to the major supermarkets, seeing the mountain of non-recyclable plastic in our shopping basket.

“In Johannesburg we mainly bought bare food, fresh produce, restocked pantry food, deli, fishmongers etc. We brought very little plastic home and we realized we could offer the same here.”

The idea became a reality when the grocery store in their town of Bradford On Avon closed because the owner retired. They thought they could occupy the premises as a grocery story with a ‘replenishment’ element.

“We knew the replenishment concept but we quickly realized that this unit was too small for our needs, so we found our Bath store which was completely dilapidated when we took it on and managed to turn it into a beautiful space ,” Stamena explained.

Refillable Tetbury will initially be a grocery store that offers sustainable and, where possible, local produce, and there will be no single-use plastics in sight. In the spring of 2025, a bistro will open upstairs for shoppers to eat, drink and browse.