Owner hopes support continues as The Market Place shop and café in Morpeth undergoes a refurbishment

The Market Place, a café and zero waste shop owned by Imogen Roth, has carried out a refurbishment.

This includes new flooring and layouts, as well as eight more seats in the café, with the growing number of customers giving her the confidence to go ahead with the changes.

Imogen used to run Healthy Prep Kitchen in Newgate Street but when the Covid-19 pandemic rendered it non-viable, she turned it into a successful zero waste shop called Eco Morpeth.

An opportunity then came along last summer to relocate to a prime spot close to the clock tower, in a unit which used to house a Boots store. And as the premises were bigger, it meant she could run a zero waste shop and a café together.

Speaking about the refurbishment, Imogen said: “I’ve always had this work in mind because it was needed. But I wanted to first get up and running, and then settled, in the new premises.

“I’m very pleased with the work that has been carried out. Northern CNC did the designs and worked on developing them, and it was great to see them come to life.

“We also now have more stock lines in the shop. My goal is to make it a 50/50 business where the shop is as successful as the café. At the moment, it is about 70/30 in favour of the café.

“I’m 100 per cent delighted with the response to the shop and café from the public that has enabled us to go ahead with this work.”

A summer menu with more variety than before is being launched at The Market Place tomorrow (Wednesday).

Having lived in Morpeth from the age of six, Imogen studied real estate at Northumbria University in Newcastle and joined a chartered surveyor firm in 2015, but quickly realised it was not for her and changing career eventually led to Healthy Prep Kitchen.

To get The Market Place up and running, she was able to get a business grant from Northumberland County Council for 30 per cent of the set-up costs on the basis she would find the other 70 per cent. She therefore hosted an online crowdfunding campaign, which raised £2,600 in just 28 days from 123 people.