On Pontypridd 's Taff Street you'll find a little shop called Pete's, but few people know the story of the determined business and how it has fought to succeed for decades. The little shop sells a number of items, is sustainable and also sells a lot of plant-based products, but it actually started out as a tiny market stall more than 40 years ago. It has since survived the miner's strike, Storm Dennis and more recently, the coronavirus pandemic.
Home to wholefoods, international foods, vegan and vegetarian foods, spices, loose refills on foods and eco-friendly household and toiletry items - the little shop sells many goods the average shopper would be thrilled to see. But they might not realise it's the latest incarnation of the wholefoods shop which was started by brothers Pete and John Lenaghan in 1981.
Back then the brothers set up a stall in Pontypridd Market selling wholefoods, spices and herbs because there was nowhere else selling those kinds of things in the town at the time. Eventually John left to pursue a different career and Pete ran the store on his own but, as the store became more popular it had to expand, so Pete moved out of the market and set up a shop unit on Mill Street, and the name was changed to Organic Wholefoods and Homebrew.
