Organic shop in town to close (From Gazette Series)

Organic shop in town to close

A POPULAR organic shop in Dursley is closing today (Friday). The owners of Better For Organics, or BFO as the store in Parsonage Street has become known, have decided to consolidate the business with sister store Mother Nature in Stroud.

Kathryn Francis, who runs BFO with her partner Kurt Hilder, said the reason for closing was that the delivery service had grown too big for the shop and the shop would not survive on its own.

She said: "We have been running an organic vegetable grocery delivery service scheme from the shop in Dursley and it has proved so successful it has outgrown the shop.

"If we took the delivery part of the business away from the shop, this shop wouldn't survive because the delivery service underpins it. There isn't the footfall just to keep the shop open on its own.

"The decision to keep running the box scheme and focus on Mother Nature seems the right thing to do."

Ms Francis told the Gazette that it was a wrench to close the shop, which was first opened in Silver Street in 2002.

She continued: "Our customers have been upset and disappointed that we are closing. We have had lots of comments from people saying what a shame it is and how Dursley needs a shop like this. I think the fact that we are going is raising a lot of questions about what is going to happen in Dursley in the future.

"It is very sad to be leaving because this is where we started the business. But we are also very excited about the next stage of the business. We don't want to let our customers down but we had to make a sensible, practical business decision and that is what we have done."

Despite the closure of the shop the organic vegetable box delivery scheme will continue with a full local and national service.