A TRADE and training pilot scheme is hoping to “breathe life into Ceredigion’s high streets” by helping local entrepreneurs and start-ups start with a shared shop presence.

Antur Cymru Enterprise is delivering the New Skills New Start project, which will run until July and provide online businesses with the chance to test their ideas, products and processes in Ceredigion’s town centres. Advisers will be on hand to deliver guidance via workshops, one-to-one sessions, and mentoring.

A Trading Space pop-up premises opened in Aberystwyth, in the former Carphone Warehouse shop, on Wednesday, 16 February.

Bronwen Raine, managing director of Antur Cymru, said the new project was the second iteration of the New Skills New Start project, working with people “who hadn’t thought about entrepreneurship”.

During the project, they found many of the skills people had learnt “helped them secure employment”.

She added: “We thought if we stimulate these people, what else can we do to build their confidence and entrepreneurship.

“So we came up with the idea of a pop-up shop where people can try out there goods, maybe get some feedback from the public about what works and what doesn’t.

“It’s letting local people who have already started, who haven’t had the opportunity to enter the high street, to see what’s like and see if they have the appetite to do this of their own accord.”

Currently there are six local traders sharing their space with their products. But project manager Julie Morgan said there would be a chance for other vendors to use the space as well.

Julie explained: “Some want to be here for the whole time. But if I get other people wanting to come in, they know they might have to leave - but they can come back.

“It’s more than just putting your stuff for sale, it’s about having the retail and management experience, and about networking with other businesses. Upstairs we’ve got a training room and a meeting room, so we’re doing business advice and support upstairs as well.”

Bronwen said all the business chosen for the project have been chosen for their sustainable and green practices.

Helen Vardy, of yoga equipment and clothes business Yoga Essentials, is “excited” for to “bring yoga to Aberystwyth” and to make it “more accessible than just online”.

Ali Salter, who owns a business focused on selling up-cycled furniture and jewellery, Carousel Aberystwyth, said the pop-up shop will help her evaluate whether this is a “viable business idea” and to raise her profile in the town.

Ali said she wouldn’t be able to afford her own store, but is hoping cooperatives with other businesses may be a viable alternative.

Susan Rees, owner of driftwood art business Coast to Country Arts, said: “I have supplied other shops but usually it’s quite high commission. I think it’s just a good boost to have the experience of being in a shop. I would like to have a shop eventually.”

Nicola Griffiths designs and sells lampshades for her business, Cardigan Bay Designs, and said the pop-up shop is particular useful for her business as “lampshades are a textual and visual product”.

Emily Foot creates art, using pebbles and sea glass from local beaches, for her business CreatEmAber.

On their quest for sustainable and ethical tea, Aberystwyth University graduates Emily Knipe and Amy Aed launched their own brand of tea, Eisa Tea Co.

Emily said: “It’s been hard to get into shops, because shops are struggling to stay open. We have a high end tea, it’s quite expensive because it’s all organic. They’re not prioritising it because of the position they’re in themselves, recovering from the pandemic.”

Julie said they are hoping to extend the project further than July: “This is a Community Renewal Fund project, which is a precursor for the UK Prosperity Fund, so we’re hoping to get measurable benefits so we can then put in for a more permanent project under the UK Prosperity Fund.”

Antur Cymru will be opening another in Lampeter next month and are hoping to find a trading space in Cardigan.

If you’re a business owner and are interested in taking part in the project, please contact [email protected].

‘Breathing life’ into high streets

As well as providing local businesses a trading space, the project also hopes to see dying high streets across the country “coming back to life”.

New Skills New Start is a UK Government initiative, funded by UK Community Renewal Fund and administered by Ceredigion County Council.

Ceredigion MP Ben Lake said “ideas like this” will be part of the solution for saving high streets: “Sadly, we’ve got quite a few empty retail spaces in the middle of town and it’s hard to deny the fact that isn’t not easy for other businesses then as well.

“I think there’s a long standing issue with business rates and the running costs for businesses.

“But there will be other issues we need to address. I think things like parking, business rates, and support for business running costs, have to be part of government thinking.”

Ceredigion County Council leader Ellen Ap Gwynn said: “This is one of the 12 projects funded by the moneys we received, about £2.8 million all told. We’re using that revenue in order to help start businesses, projects, or feasibility studies in order to get things on the road as it where.”

The council leader added: “We’re not looking at anything else at the moment, but we are looking at putting parking places back in place and reinstating the flow of traffic we had previously.

“So bringing the town back to normal but keeping some of the big people really liked - like the extended pavements, so people can have a coffee on the street in the sun.”

While Mr Lake praised the project, he said there was more that could be done to help high streets: “I think business rates evaluation is key.

“Whereas previously you may have had a multinational chain in a larger unit in the centre of town, it’s too big a space for a small business.

“What I would like to see if a pot of money being given by central government to allow those units to be broken up into two or three smaller units, which would see the running costs shared but also, I think it, you would be below the threshold for business rates.

“It would just help incentivize people to take that big leap, because it is a big leap.”