How we've helped Bee Retro
Business overview
Caroline was a teacher for 20 years. She specialised in art, design and technology, and later supported young people with special educational needs. Looking to move on and have a slower pace of life, but still wanting to use her creative talents; becoming self-employed was an obvious choice for Caroline.
“It just made sense!”
The lightbulb moment came with a walk on the beach with the dog. Picking up all the plastic, she knew she wanted to do something eco-friendly and her last name Bee made the connection with bee’s wax wraps. The wraps are a perfect alternative to cling film for wrapping and storing food - helping you be plastic free.
Caroline started experimenting with different materials and sourced the bees wax from a local beekeeper in North Cornwall. She sold her first batch to a local shop in Wadebridge just a month later.
It was nice with the Growth Hub to be pointed in the right direction
How we helped
Caroline sent the Growth Hub a message on New Years Eve at the start of 2019.
“I decided if I was going to make a go at it, I needed to learn how to grow and do things properly. “
Caroline met with Connector Christina in January and they discussed support for starting a new business especially around marketing and finance. She was put in touch with Unlocking Potential who went through how to recognise your audience and how to market your products.
Caroline was also introduced to Access to Finance.
“On the two-day course they took me through all the money side of things and working out your profit and the bottom line.” This made it possible for Caroline to start working on her business plan and start to grow organically.
Caroline has recently undertaken a course to help her improve her website to be able to sell more easily online which is next on her to do list.
However the next big development for supporting her business, is setting up a project working with local engineering students. They will be investigating how it may be possible to mechanise some of the processes in making the wraps. This will give the young people a real-world business project for their CV and help Caroline with her business productivity.
The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub from May 2016 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project received £2,848,591.49 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.
| Business name | Bee Retro |
|---|---|
| Website | https://beeretro.co.uk/ |
| Contact number | 07745 373344 |
| Contact email | [email protected] |
