HOMEWARE BOUTIQUE WINS FAIRE COMPETITION TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT RETAILERS IN THE UK A sustainable business helping shoppers to reduce waste, and a gift and a homeware boutique celebrating British craftsmanship, have been announced as the winners of a competition to support up-and-coming independent retailers in the UK. Wasteless Market in Kent and Fond Shop Lymm in Cheshire have each been awarded £5,000 to buy inventory on global wholesale marketplace Faire, a retail platform which connects hundreds of thousands of independent retailers with brands across the world. Wasteless Market was first established by Teresa Ewart in 2019 following the death of her sister to cancer, offering ethical, natural and sustainable alternatives to homeware and personal care products. She formed a company with co-owner Lis Radbon in 2020. Its monthly markets and refill hub in Bexley, Kent, were forced to close when Covid struck but they relaunched last month and Teresa and Lis now plan to expand their current product range thanks to Faire’s support. Lis said: “Wasteless Market was set up because it was proving too challenging to find anywhere else that sold handmade products with fewer ingredients that were free of single-use plastics. As the sole provider of refills and a hub for eco-conscious traders and customers in Bexley, we have now cultivated a loyal following of environmentally-minded consumers. “Faire has already made ordering and finding eco-friendly supplies much more convenient and reduced the quantities we needed to order to bring down delivery costs. As a non-profit enterprise, every penny we make is put back into the business so these savings are a great help. The £5K in credit to spend on Faire will now enable us to expand our product range to help attract more customers and help them reduce their carbon and plastic footprint. It will also release funds to market our events and host educational workshops on sustainable living.” Meanwhile, Fond Shop Lymm’s owner Laura Collier has achieve her long-held dream of running her own shop following its launch in her home town of Lymm in Cheshire earlier this month. It sells gifts and homeware produced by an array of UK creatives and Laura will use the money from Faire to replenish stock in the run up to Christmas and expand her product- buying budget. Laura said: “Burnout from a previous job made me reflect on how I could find fulfilment in my career and combine my skills with my personal passions. I realised that the only way to achieve this was to finally chase a dream I’ve had in some form or another for 20 years and open my own bricks-and-mortar shop. Winning this competition has provided me with such a boost, not just financially but also in energy and in confidence for my shop’s launch. Preparing to open my first shop has been a thrilling but exhausting experience, and winning the competition has given me the extra surge of joy that will take me to opening day still smiling! “I’d spent many hours on Faire and added so many amazing products to my basket that I wanted to buy them all but couldn’t afford to! But now I can stock the range of brands and products that best showcase my vision for my shop and set the best first impression.” New and aspiring retailers from across the UK entered the competition, which forms part of Faire’s Open with Faire programme to provide new shop owners up to £20,000, in free, 60-day payment terms, to stock their shelves and support their launch. Each was asked to submit a video about how winning an additional £5,000 to spend on stock would transform their business. www.faire.com DULUX ANNOUNCES COLOUR OF THE YEAR Dulux announced their Colour of the Year as True Joy - and it’s easy to see why! We all want happier, uplifting home interiors for 2025 and the colour yellow gives us a boost of positive inspiration ahead of the new year. Amthal Karim, Head of Design at Furniture And Choice comments: “Dulux True Joy is an energetic shade of yellow with warm, golden undertones. The timeless charm of the colour of the year comes from its balance of dusky versus bright. True Joy is more vibrant than a mustard tone and has more depth and warmth than shades of lemon or canary yellow. “Yellow is traditionally a colour that makes us feel happy and optimistic - True Joy is no exception. A room painted in True Joy is a room always filled with sunshine, energy, and a feeling of excitement. But it’s yellow - we hear you say! We admit, it’s a daring design commitment to paint an entire room yellow, which is why this specific shade chosen by Dulux works perfectly as an accent colour too. “The Dulux Colour of the Year 2025 is meant to inspire people to ‘jump out’ of their comfort zone. What we love about True Joy is that it encourages you to become colour confident in decorating your home. Whether you feel brave enough to paint your entire room yellow or keep it small to highlight features - any colour that gives us good vibes and happy feelings cannot be the wrong choice.” INDUSTRY NEWS 11
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