New brand launched for independent businesses in Bury St Edmunds town centre
Independent businesses are displaying their pride in their work as Our Bury St Edmunds BID launches a new brand for the town’s unique shops and smaller companies. ‘Proud to be an Independent Business’ is at the heart of a new marketing campaign launched this week to coincide with ‘Independents Day’ (July 4).
It’s the 14th year that the Business Improvement District (BID) has backed ‘Independents’ Day UK’, a national campaign supporting and promoting Indies across the UK all year round. This year the annual focus on Thursday (July 4) extends across the whole weekend.
Papaki’s Deli, Buy The Light, and Beautiful Beers, are just some of the businesses taking part in this year’s Our Bury St Edmunds BID indies marketing campaign which starts on July 4 and runs until Sunday July 7.
Our Bury St Edmunds BID Business Support Manager Mike Kirkham said: “Independent businesses are what makes Bury St Edmunds such a wonderful place to live, work and shop and are the reason many residents and visitors cherish our town centre.
“In launching this new brand we’re featuring a range of marketing opportunities including a new window sticker distinctively highlighting which town centre businesses are independent so that people can make a clear choice to shop local. And as part of the campaign, a number of independent businesses have been interviewed for a video and a blog. These highlight how special indies are to our town, but also offers people a chance to get to know a little more about the business and find out about the people behind them.”
With almost 300 independent businesses in Bury St Edmunds town centre, they play a critical role in the local economy. There’s at least one indie on every street making up nearly 60% of the town’s businesses.
Mike Kirkham added: “As a BID, we do of course support the independents all year round with a number of different opportunities for their businesses. But ‘Independents’ Day’ and the few days around it is the time to remind everyone that shopping local is one of the easiest ways to help our town centre economy – whether it’s buying a takeaway coffee or lunchtime sandwich from an independent cafe instead of a big chain or popping down St John’s Street for something for your home instead of heading to an out-of-town retail park.
“When speaking to the businesses who’ve opted into our ‘Independents Day’ promotion they tell us that the independent business community is the heart of the town and the support and energy it generates influenced them to base their businesses here. The feedback about the town that we’ve been getting from these indies include words like ‘friendly,’ ‘approachable,’ ‘beautiful,’ and ‘supportive’ and long may that continue.”
Research has shown that for every pound spent in a small or medium sized business, around 63p stays in the local economy compared to only about 40p per pound at a big brand store. And according to the Federation of Small Businesses it’s these enterprises that provide around 60% of the employment opportunities in the UK private sector.
Details of all the independent businesses, a number of whom will have special deals and offers can be found at ourburystedmunds.com with offers also available on the LoyalFree App.
