Somerset café opens with help from British Business Bank

A Somerset café, deli and wine bar has opened with help of the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme.

Chloe Widdows and Jim Thomson recently opened The Acorn café, deli and wine bar in Yeovil. The former teachers both applied for a £15,000 Start Up Loan to help them put down a deposit for the premises before working on kitting out the Church Street building.

Ms Widdows said: “After going back to school after the Covid pandemic, we just had this feeling that we really wanted to do this now. We felt that there was a way we could celebrate all of this wonderful produce that we have right here on our doorstep.”

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She added: “We’re about providing an experience. You don’t just come in and get your corporate coffee and leave. It’s about understanding the produce and its provenance.”

Before they got the keys to their venue, the pair spent time travelling the county and beyond, meeting local producers, going on vineyard and factory tours and generally making connections with as many Westcountry food and drink businesses as possible.

Ms Widdows said the expert help they have received as part of the Start Up Loan programme has been as valuable as the funds.

“If we’d got the money right off the bat, we wouldn’t have thought about half the things we needed to think about,” she said, talking about putting together the business plan and going through the pitfalls with their adviser. “His expertise was really crucial in not only getting us the money but also making sure we were ready to receive it and knew what to do with it.”

Start Up Loans is a government-backed scheme from the British Business Bank, available to people looking to start or grow a business in the UK. It offers unsecured loans of up to £25,000 with a fixed interest rate of 6 per cent, repayable over one to five years. Successful applicants also receive 12 months of free mentoring to help them succeed.

The programme has delivered more than £85m of funding to over 9,000 businesses in the South West since 2012.