Shared Spaces
JORDAN CONNELLEY
With looming tariffs, trade wars, and increased economic uncertainty, HIP investigates the growing trend of shared commercial spaces in Hastings and the positive effects of this new business model.
Mark Plummer in his wine vault
Running a business is hard. ONS statistics released in November last year show that only 39.4% of businesses survive for their hard-earned five-year anniversary. And the South-East has a low growth ratio of just 9.9% of new business registrations – compared with London’s top rating of 12.6%. Indeed, growth only outstrips the rate of businesses who cease operations in the area by 0.1%.
It’s not hard to see why the statistical prognosis is bad, as the cost of running a business has skyrocketed in recent years, the High Street has been on its last legs for as long as anyone can remember, and the initial outlay for a new small business can be an expensive risk for a first-time entrepreneur.
But the news isn’t all bad. In recent years, businesses across Hastings have been experimenting with a novel way of minimising the dangers of the start-up by banding together and sharing space. This new trend is in vogue, with informal incubation centres for start-ups popping up across Hastings, from larger scale enterprises such as Heist, which hosts several smaller concessions in a big building, allowing emerging food purveyors to test and develop their concept and menu in a shared space, to smaller agreements between like-minded business folk.
One excellent example of a local success story is Mark Plummer of The Wine Room, who in an interview with HIP described the birth of his business in 2020, during the onset of covid. Mark admits “I must have been mad” to go live then. But the success of The Wine Room and its partnership with popular homeware store Shop of Norman Road in St Leonards, where Mark runs a concession, speaks for itself.
Mark can now celebrate being one of the 39% of businesses that have survived the five-year mark, and, what’s more, can point to a growth in his turnover, with The Wine Room currently offering over 300 wines, compared to the 70 or so he started with.
Mark is wholly positive about the benefits of shared spaces, acknowledging that his partnership with Shop has helped him avoid high initial outlays whilst also offering him low overheads to kick start his wine business. However, he counsels caution and suggests that new initiatives should be careful about who they partner with. No two businesses are alike, and Mark stresses that a shared space is about much more than merely saving costs. Success requires synergy and, for Mark, a shared space will only work if businesses offer products or services that complement each other and cater to a similar clientele.
Another recent positive story shows how premises can be shared across time, in this case day and evening, demonstrating how unused or underutilised space can be turned into a mutually beneficial business arrangement. Sleeper, opened by Nick Clark, and now celebrating their third year on Kings Road in St Leonards, has recently partnered with Wermut, turning Sleeper, a New-York style bagel shop and foodie’s dream, into a stylish cocktail bar in the evenings serving up pre-dinner drinks.
Speaking to Nick and the team at Sleeper, it’s clear he shares Mark’s passion for shared spaces and has hosted various pop-ups over the years including two-weeks with the chic Cambridge restaurant, Vanderlyle. He’s especially pleased that Wermut could utilise the shop, saying “we usually run out of bagels at around 2.30pm; now the space has become revitalised as a popular watering hole in evenings too.”
Deriving additional income has helped Nick to support his team of four bakers and baristas. It’s clear he sees the potential for this growing trend in Hastings and St Leonards as like-minded creative and energetic people work together to generate new business concepts in a tough, but definitely not unbeatable, market.
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