The Filling Station, Cross Lane, trading independently in Sidmouth.
Please introduce yourself…
Hi, we are Roz and Luke, a mother and son team, from The Filling Station café in Sidmouth.
We aim to provide the widest selection of daytime food offerings with a quality customer experience.
What made you decide to set up shop as an independent trader in Sidmouth?
After coming home to Sidmouth from five years living and working in Cairo, Egypt, we first owned and ran a successful guest house in Sidbury, but couldn't quite shake the dream of a café and sandwich shop similar to those we had enjoyed abroad.
Incorporating our passion for food and hospitality, not to mention Luke's love of a 'Scooby Snack' style sandwich, we knew it had to be a bit different and 'quirky', so when the 'The Filling Station' in Cross Lane became available nearly five years ago, it fitted the bill as a good starting point.
It wasn't long before it became more than just your average pasty and sandwich takeaway.
The opportunity to build our café arose with us taking on the shop next door, enabling us to realise the dream of providing great food and drinks sourced from across the South West, focusing on as many Fairtrade products as possible, along with organic hand roasted coffee.
Being able to provide a number of gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options is also proving successful with our customers. We are particularly proud of our plastic-free status and continually strive to operate as ethically as possible.
How do you see your business faring over the next five years?
We are looking forward to more new challenges and hope to further develop our range of Egyptian specialities, which already complements our extensive variety of lunchtime options.
To expand on that theme, we are hoping to offer bespoke dinner events for those wanting to experience Middle Eastern family cuisine.
With this in mind, we hope to be able to upgrade even more and possibly move to a larger High Street location, where we can continue to offer more and more, whilst retaining our friendly customer service ethos.
What one piece of advice would you give to anybody considering setting up a local independent shop or business?
Times are tough for all independents, but our advice would have to be, be brave, focus on what you believe in and dare to be that little bit different from everyone else.
Roz, Luke and 'The Filling Station' team hope to see you soon!
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