Winchester celebrates Independent Business Month throughout July.
Every year in the UK throughout July, we celebrate Independent Business Month, to highlight the importance of the roles played by smaller, local, and independent businesses in their communities. To support this, Winchester Business Improvement District (BID) will be celebrating the city’s unique selection of independent businesses by promoting #IndieWinch businesses across Winchester.
On Thursday 1st July outside of the City Museum, Winchester BID will install our pop-up shop, No 1 Independent Street. Visitors will be able to come along and pick up a FREE pocket map showing over 150 independent shopping and food & drink businesses across the city centre. The newly designed map lists all the wonderful places to eat and drink as well as the amazing retailers across the city. A useful tool that can be used to help navigate around the city with stars marking the business locations, to help residents and visitors to shop, wine and dine independently. From July onwards, independent businesses will be displaying new Winchester Independents window stickers encouraging visitors and residents to support them and shop locally. Check out the new online version of the Winchester Independents Map.
To celebrate the month, Winchester BID has created a series of short films and a montage of images to showcase what it means to be an independent business in Winchester and why so many businesses choose to call Winchester home.
Sarah Davis, Winchester Business Improvement District Manager said:
“The past 15 months have been particularly challenging for all businesses, but the resilience of the independent hospitality and retail sectors is really evident in Winchester. New businesses are being attracted to the city because of the collaborative, supportive nature of these businesses and their customers.”
Rebecca Smith, Owner of Open House Deli said:
“At Open House Deli we love being an independent business in Winchester, we are all in it together and all support each other like a family community. I remember when I have had to call another independent before to ask if we can borrow some milk when we have run out. A national celebration of independent businesses is our way of flying the flag for them in Winchester. Being in Winchester we are surrounded by amazing produce and suppliers, which means we can truly celebrate being local and seasonal. We started out on a market stall, then came into this space, and some of those customers are still with us now.”
If you run an independent business in Winchester, and have any special promotions planned, then keep us posted by using the national #IndependentsMonth or the local #IndieWinch hashtags on social media to tell us a bit more about yourself and what you are doing to celebrate. Keep up to date with our Independent Business Month activity by following our social media channels @winchesterbid on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and #IndieWinch for further updates.
If you have Independent Business Month news or events you would like to share, please use the #IndieWinch hashtag on social media for a retweet or story share.
