We love being part of the Kingsdown community
We’re just down the road from the hospitals. We get many NHS workers coming in for a moment of calm on their lunch break. We often have patients stopping by on the way to or from receiving life-changing treatment or news. We like that we can help create a moment of peace for passers-by before carrying on their day.
Our Story
Sprouts started in 2020 from our spare bedroom, delivering plants across Bristol and Bath at the weekends during Covid. We went on to open our physical store in Kingsdown just a year later.
We now have four employees and, as of 2023, we're officially a living wage employer (we paid the living wage anyway prior to this, but the plaque is nice to have!) Our employees all bring something different to the table, and are all really invested in Sprouts - from plant care, to merchandising, socials, or chocolate tasting, they’ve all massively helped make Sprouts what it is today.
Opening a retail business out of lockdown, with no prior business experience, has not been easy in the post-Covid economic climate, but Sprouts continues to grow and build a community of customers in Kingsdown, and nationally through our online orders. From our consistent 5 star reviews across Google, Etsy, and Facebook, our shop is spreading Bristol’s good name all over the UK.
We invite people into our shop via workshops and events, which are going from strength to strength. We work with Yuup - a Bristol based platform - to promote and sell tickets for the workshops, and consistently receive 5 star reviews.
Sustainability
We are a diverse, female-led team, with our own array of neurodiverse challenges and learning difficulties, and strive to make everyone feel welcome at Sprouts. From kids who want to know how to look after their first plant, to a passerby trying to find out why their plant is sick, we are always happy to help - no matter the question. We build on employees' strengths to give our customers the service and help they need when visiting our shop without the hard sales, and try to instil this across the team.
We support and work with other house-plant or small businesses within Bristol where possible. Whether this is pushing their socials, working at events together or on new ideas, we always want to be a part of flying the flag for the wonderful small businesses Bristol and this country have to offer and not work against ‘competition’ and do ourselves or our customers a disservice.
We try to be as sustainable as possible, from peat-free soil to reused packaging for our national deliveries. Every aspect of the business and the impact Sprouts has on the planet has been carefully thought through. We want to leave a positive impact on the world and not a trail of plastic, chemicals and destruction behind us.
We don’t buy from our suppliers on a sale or return basis, and instead only buy wholesale, so that we share the risk with small businesses/makers.
An Incredible Year
2023 was an incredible year for Sprouts, in spite of the challenges thrown at small businesses, especially for retail, in the past 12 months. We are proud of our achievements and cannot wait to see what the future holds. Last year, despite at times feeling like everything was against us, we still managed to have record-breaking months and grew our wonderful team who have made all of this possible.
We saw a 31% increase in revenue in 2023 compared to 2022, with increases as big as 154% in June, 98% in April and 53% in March - typically these are our quietest months.
We went from 2 members of staff to 4. This increased the average monthly hours from just under 60 hours to over 200 hours, a nearly 400% increase.
We saw an 18.7% increase in purchasing customers visiting our Kingsdown shop which in turn increased footfall to the local area and surrounding businesses.
We officially became a real living wage employer in March 2023 after paying the real living wage since 2020.
We launched our plastic-free DIY terrarium kit, which went above and beyond our expectations and sold out before Christmas - we didn't have enough to meet demand. We are making some changes to the kit to make it better than before and we will be relaunching it in the coming weeks.
In February 2023, we decided to stop stocking roses for Valentine's Day. Roses aren't seasonal in the UK in February and are flown across the world, imported here from Holland. Instead, we partnered with Heart of BS13, a social enterprise in one of the most deprived areas in the city to sell their dried flower bouquets. We doubled the revenue taken on these bouquets compared to imported roses in 2022. These bouquets are low carbon, chemical/plastic free and zero air miles, unlike most roses sold in the UK.
We started working with a Cotswold outdoor perennial plant grower in Spring 2023. They have fantastic culinary herbs and outdoor plants, which are selected for their use to native wildlife, which we try to educate our customers on. As well this we have started sourcing houseplants from UK growers, as most plants are imported into the country from Holland.
In Autumn 2023, we launched our range of spring bulbs as a test to see if it was viable and it was! All the varieties we picked are good for pollinators and naturalising. This year we are going a step further and looking for a UK organic bulb supplier to work with to bring high quality, environmentally-friendly bulbs Sprouts.
We doubled the revenue on our workshops, on average that's likely to be 200 more people attending our workshops in 2023. We work with Bristol-based company Yuup to sell tickets for workshops.
We continued to grow our wedding plant hire service: a sustainable alternative to all cut flower displays. This service has also started to expand to corporate plant hire, which again is a much more sustainable alternative to flowers or plastic centrepieces.
What this Means to Us
Winning the Bristol Life Awards would not only mean the world to Sprouts and myself, for the sacrifice I've made as the business owner but would also show our employees how much their hard work, dedication and enthusiasm towards Sprouts and everything we stand for is being recognised. Winning the award will only strengthen our pitch to our customers (new and old) and stand alongside our Real Living Wage badge, our hopefully soon-to-be B-Corp Certification and our hundreds of 5* reviews online, showing that we can be trusted and have the credentials to back up our own claims.
What our Customers Say
★★★★★
‘I spend more time & money in here than I'd care to admit. Beautiful plants, lovely people, always happy to give plant advice and recommend something that will fit your needs perfectly. Pet safe, shade loving, beginner friendly, rare, tiny, huge, cheap, spenny, cards, gifts, they have it all! The plants always come in excellent health with good quality soil. Please someone come buy the variegated Monstera Delociosa so I can stop being tempted by it..’ Erin, Google Reviews
★★★★★
‘I can’t recommend Sprouts highly enough - following an issue with Royal Mail on a previous purchase I ordered directly with them this time and have the most beautiful plant as a result. It was a birthday present for myself and I’m delighted with it. Service, quality, efficiency were all excellent. Very happy customer.’ - Lou, Google Reviews
★★★★★
‘Such a lovely time learning about terrariums, I'm excited to now turn every spice jar, sauce bottle and vase into a terrarium! Our host was lovely and all her little touches made the evening very special. The shop was beautiful and I came away smiling.’ - Ottilie, Yuup Website
