Taking a family business from a garage to a new warehouse space
Like many entrepreneurs do, Nikky of Pius Vita Superfoods, started up her business from her converted garage at home. After recently growing her sales, and starting to supply retailers, it was time she found a dedicated workspace where she could store her stock, as well as do some admin. Nikky shared with us why she’s on a mission to make organic, healthy food more accessible and how she found her business’s new home at our centre in Croydon.
Setting up a business with an ethical purpose
A professional accountant by trade, she was prompted to start researching natural ways of boosting health after a family member’s cancer diagnosis. She became aware that many superfood products are inaccessible as they tend to be very expensive. So she set out on a mission to supply affordable products, which are healthy and ethically produced.
She told us: “So Pius Vita Superfoods is all about organic foods which boost people’s wellbeing because we are what we eat and health is wealth. But it’s not just about what we eat, but the quality of what we eat. So it’s about the farmers as well: we make sure everything we sell is ethically sourced and sustainable. And we avoid plastics in our packaging to look after the environment too.
“We’re a family business. It’s not about making massive profits – we’re very much about making sure that the good food gets to everyone, and everybody can afford it. So, you don’t have to be rich to eat well is my idea.”
From home garage to a new warehouse
Nikky needed a space which was clean and tidy for her food-based business. And she needed more space than her converted garage at home offered in order to grow her business. So she now uses her new space in our Croydon business centre for a range of business tasks.
“I use the space as a warehouse. But also, I’ve kept a little bit of space for my office, so I’ve got my desk and computer set up. We do a bit of packaging in there and shipping, we had our coconut oil, delivered last week and TK Maxx came the next day to pick their share. The rest of our products are sold online or on TikTok which has worked well for us.”
A scalable space for a growing business
One of the key things which attracted Pius Vita Superfoods to our centre was the flexibility to scale up and scale down, depending on how her business grew:
“As an entrepreneur, the flexibility is great because if it’s not working out, I can just say I’ve got to go. And if I want to expand, I can always say, I need a bigger space. So, I’d say that the flexibility is kind of what made me say, actually, I think we found it.
“When I visited the centre, I thought this looks neat and comfortable. I just want something simple, tidy and easy to get to. The centre is very convenient, because I live just about ten minutes away.”
She is hoping to continue growing her business and making healthy foods accessible to the many not just the few. We look forward to supporting her on her journey.
