Smaller shops deliver blow to supermarkets
Former barrister to launch home service across borough as more stores sign up for scheme
A FORMER barrister who set up a home delivery service to support Highbury’s struggling small shops has been so successful that she has rolled out the scheme across the borough.
Marisa Leaf started Hubbub exactly one year ago with just two shops in Highbury Barn and a dozen or more regular customers.
The aim was to help small, independent, specialist shops, who suffer from high rents and parking regulations which deter customers, to compete with the big supermarkets.
Marisa also set up an advisory board with consultants and local residents, including the chairman of the Financial Times Sir David Bell and his wife Lady Primrose.
Now six more shops have joined the scheme, with more in the pipeline, including a fishmonger. There are more than 150 customers, stretching into Camden and Stoke Newington.
Marisa is an expert in public law and the former head of the European criminal justice department for the human rights charity Justice.
But she stood down from the Bar to concentrate on the food delivery service, which is based at her home in Barnsbury.
“I ran a pilot last year with two shops in Highbury Barn, butcher Frank Godfrey and deli La Fromagerie, to find out the demand,” said Marisa. “It has proved to be so successful that I am gradually expanding to cover the entire borough.”
New shops and outlets include Saponara in Prebend Street, Angel, Bumblebee Natural Foods in Brechnock Road, on the borders with Camden, chocolatier Paul Young in Camden Passage, Angel, restaurant and cake shop Ottolenghi in Upper Street, Angel, and Highbury fishmonger Les Lawrence.
Marisa is helped by delivery van driver Amy Humphris, a graduate from the London School of Economics, who is currently doing a PhD in employment relations.
Customers can order online from any of the shops involved in the scheme, making a single payment. Deliveries are made on the same day.
The advisory board is chaired by Lady Primrose Bell and meets monthly. Members include Peggy Dannenbaum, who founded La Fornaia bakery, Jonny Goldstone, managing director of Green Tomato Cars, Zeenat Anjari, who founded Flaneur in Farringdon Road, Ramsey Khoury, founder and managing director of Head London web design, and Raphael Mokades, founder of Rare Recruitments.
Marisa said: “People think that independent shops are more expensive than the supermarkets, but it isn’t always the case. We’re also talking about good value. How can you compare cheap meat from a supermarket with that from a butcher which is free range, properly hung, and properly butchered?”
Lady Primrose Bell said: “This is such a wonderful idea that myself and my husband felt we had to support it. We have some excellent small shops in Islington but they are continually under threat by competition from supermarkets and the ban on parking.”
First deliveries are free and after that they work out at £3.50 per call.
www.hubbubdeliveries.co.uk
PETER GRUNER