When Carole Taylor launched her Kintore-based refillery and zero-waste store she never expected to be paying more for her utility bills than her rent.
But that’s exactly what the 41-year-old owner of Sustainable Roots Kintore has been faced with.
Despite this the mum-of-two has been overwhelmed by the support of her customers since opening the doors to her new shop last month.
Ms Taylor first started her business venture Taylor Made Refills in October 2019, making products in the kitchen at her Kintore home.
After outgrowing her home premises, she took on an industrial unit in Kintore where she produces a range of environmentally friendly household cleaning products.
Ms Taylor, mum to Will, 10 and seven-year-old Alex, then decided to realise her dream and open her own shop in the village, based in School Road.
Some products in short supply
Along with the cleaning products she makes, the shop stocks a variety of food stuffs including lentils, pulses, different types of rice, pasta, flours, herbs and spices, salts, dried fruit, nuts, sweets, panko breadcrumbs, seeds, fresh bread and dog biscuits.
However the cost-of-living crisis has made sourcing some foods favoured by cost-conscious cooks more difficult as demand for less expensive ingredients has risen.
She said: “There’s a few things that are difficult to get hold of just now.
“Pudding rice and yellow split peas are two products.
“People are bulking out their dishes more with a protein-based meat alternative because the cost of meat is so high.
“When it comes to pudding rice, people are making their own rather than shop bought ready-made which is a lot more expensive.
“Red lentils are also very difficult to come by.
“We do try and get stock in from local little independent businesses in the north-east and the north to try and help those.”
‘Crazy’ electric prices
Before opening Ms Taylor and her husband Mark gave serious thought to the effects of rising energy prices.
She said: “Electric prices are crazy. It’s so high.
“But it’s cold, it’s November. We have to put the heating on and we have to have the lights on.
“And keep the electricity going through the night to power the fridges and the freezers.
“It’s quite a challenge and we’ve not seen any government support for that yet.
“We’ve done our costing forecast for the first year or two and sadly had to include the higher energy utility costs in that to make sure we can cover the bills.
“I was never expecting my utilities to cost as much as my rent. It’s crazy.”
Award-winning business
Despite just being open for nearly two months the shop is continuing to grow from strength to strength and Taylor Made Refills was recently crowned Best Eco Friendly Business in Scotland at the Scotland’s Business Awards.
Ms Taylor said: “Owning a shop was a dream for the best part of a year.
“It has been going brilliantly. We’ve been really well supported by the locals in and around Kintore.
“We’ve been really pleased and slightly overwhelmed at the amount of people coming in who are ready to refill in tubs and jars.
“We are selling a lot more our cleaning products, pulses and lentils, herbs and spices.
“You buy just what you need because it’s not cost-effective to buy a big five kilo bag of something if you don’t use it before the expiry date.
“Dried fruits are popular for people making their own Christmas cakes.”
Conversation