A popular independent online greengrocer that has been selling to its local community will close the doors to its shop on Saturday (May 28) and will make two workers redundant - but the company will still function as normal aside from retailing. Kerry's Fresh Fruit and Veg is based at Colliers Business Park on Fieldfare Road in Cotgrave.
The family business started out in 1885, when Richard and Sarah Kerry had a stall selling geese and hens in Nottingham's Old Market Square. In the present day, the business now operates as an online greengrocer, and helped to provide food to people during the Covid pandemic.
Customers can order their groceries online, on the phone or by emailing, which trades through the week. Around four years ago, Kerry's Fresh opened a shop for the local community which was open on Fridays and Saturdays, according to its owners, where local people could come into the shop and pick their fruit and veg.
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Staff said there was an informal agreement in place with their landlords Rushcliffe Borough Council to provide retail to people in the local community. But Kerry's bosses say when they tried to formalise this around December 2020 / January 2021 time, the council told them they could not continue to trade from the shop.
Rushcliffe Borough Council has said Kerry's Fresh was told it was never allowed to retail from the unit and that it was lenient through the pandemic as it was helping the local community, and there were less health and safety risks associated with retailing from the site at the time. Following around 18 months of discussions, Kerry's Fresh is now closing its shop to customers.
The council made clear that alternative options were offered to the business - but that these were turned down because Kerry's bosses didn't feel they fitted in with the business model. Customers have been asking why the retail shop is closing, and two workers will be made redundant because of this, says owner Dean Kerry. But Mr Kerry says the shop only accounts for around 10 percent of business.
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Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, he said: "This has been stressful on top of running a business and employing people, and I'm not happy at two workers having to be made redundant. It's cost us a small fortune to fight this and we could have a hollow victory, but they're still our landlord.
"We can still run our business here, it's just I don't think what has happened has been gone about in the right way, I don't feel as if there has been any consistency in what the council has wanted to do. We're looking to provide a click and collect option to customers.
"We were offered alternative options to continue retailing, but these were not what we are about. I think we became a little too successful for where we are based.
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"The local community has been fantastic and the support has been unwavering. We have not got a vendetta or anything like that against the council, we're happy to work with them going forward, we just want to let people know what is going on, put this to one side and move on."
A Rushcliffe Borough Council spokesperson said: "The council is committed to supporting businesses in the borough and has invested millions of pounds regenerating Cotgrave precinct for retailing and creating Colliers Business Park for employment use. Colliers Business Park has not been designed for shopping and there are inadequate pedestrian walkways and parking available to reduce public interactions with business vehicles, including heavy good vehicles.
"We have worked extensively with the business on possible retail solutions, including a Cotgrave precinct-based retail unit, declined due to higher rental and staffing costs, and a further offer to trade from a pop-up shop at the precinct at nominal cost, both with free adjacent car parking, but its owners feel neither option fits their business model. Before the business moved into the Business Park unit, the council explicitly informed owners they could not retail from the unit but pre-Covid still created a shop against our wishes.
"During the pandemic we tolerated the shop due to the unprecedented need at the time supporting the community. The health and safety risk was much diminished as the Business Park was much quieter and free from much of its usual vehicular activity.
"Once full trading began again the concerns on the inadequacy of the Business Park for retail purposes again came to the fore, confirmed by an independent Health and Safety Report. We have been working with the business owners for an extensive period and offer these alternative solutions but they have still persisted in retail trading on the site against our wishes."
