The Good Food Shop
A Pioneering Journey into the Heart of Devon
Aishan Rehan & Mohammed Rehan
In the mid 2000s we stumbled upon a fresh challenge in the heart of Devon. After assiduously scouring the country in search of a captivating business opportunity, we settled on the fascinating little village of Dartington, as it offered a remedy for all our family’s needs. The idea that Shinners Bridge Garage would appear ‘captivating’ may seem strange to some, but for us it was perfect.
When we arrived in Dartington there were some who doubted we could make a success of a filling station that was already showing signs of distress.
Indeed, the early years were a big struggle and it was necessary to reconfigure the business in order to simply survive and make a sucess of things.
A Growing Business
Some may remember with great fondness the attached garage, but because of the tough local competition we had to close it. We make decisions as a family and so one difficult day we all sat down to try and think of ideas that would establish our business more soundly and at the same time provide something new for the surrounding community. After assessing the lack of indian food in the area, Aisha decided to establish an Indian curry business that we would run from our very own kitchen. We started by selling homemade samosas and other snacks in the shop. They were immediately met with great success and so Aisha quickly began making homemade curry recipes taught to her by her family. However, it became a challenging endeavor for her to develop this new concept all while being a mum to three young children.
Dartington became delighted with our authentic family recipes, and so we began developing this food concept into the country filling station. The popularity of our curries grew, and we started seeing customers becoming regulars and we had to expand the size and facilities of our kitchen just to keep up with the growing demand for delicious curries. We took on more staff and trained them to cook our authentic dishes and even expanded our range with pickles, sweets, savouries and homemade organic halwas, intentionally increasing the need to hire more skilled local people into our expanding business.
Organic Ranges
At the same time, we improved the produce that we sold in the main shop, instead of the usual variety of ‘petrol station’ goods, we introduced organic ranges as well as products that would typically be found in health food shops.
One of our biggest changes has been more recent with the introduction of our new branding ‘The Good Food Shop’. Where the old garage used to be we have updated the area into a friendly, local farm shop selling fresh local produce, a wide range of Indian curries and snacks, chutneys, nuts, locally made breads, alternative chocolate ranges and vegan and vegetarian foods and products. Local people love our range of healthy, alternative, responsibly produced products that are not what you can get everywhere else.
A Bright Future
The Good Food Shop is becoming established in the area as a source of healthy, fresh and organic food, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve. As well as supporting local food producers, we have brought the exotic and unusual into the shop as well – our own delicious food using our authentic recipes are made with local ingredients – truly a global local food shop.
All this would not have been possible without the continuous support and commitment made by our wondrous team of staff members. We truly are gratified by their enormous contribution to this little Devon fuel station, from it’s shaky roots into this blossoming popular retail experience.
With your ongoing support, we will have many more exciting business ventures together.