West Dorset’s Cilla and Camilla is among the housewares stockists that are upbeat about post-lockdown trade. The retailer has four stores including its Cookshop in Sherborne – with sales up 40%+ in July – and boutique department store in Beauminster.
Co-owner Richard Barker reveals: “Trade since we re-opened has been better than expected, by some measure.” He reports that Cilla and Camilla Cookshop in Sherborne (which re-opened on June 23) “has been the star of the show – sales in July were more than 40% ahead of last year.” He elaborates: “Virtually all that growth appears to be driven by new customers who gained a new (or re-newed) passion for cooking and baking during lockdown. Further growth has been limited by poor availability of some lines from key cookware suppliers.”
This month Cilla and Camilla is participating in the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme in its café in Beauminster, helping to boost footfall on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Meanwhile at garden centre Garsons, (which has outlets in Esher in Surrey, and Titchfield in Hampshire), head buyer Sarah Crees also notes the positive affects of a new population of home bakers and cooks. She states: “We have seen steady sales in our kitchenware range, indicating that people are still eager to home cook and bake, although during this heat we imagine people have branched out and are now experimenting with cool drinks and homemade cocktails!”
However Sarah also notes (referring to the recent sunny weather and heatwave): “We’re fortunate that when the sun comes out and the temperature rises, people gravitate towards garden centres resulting in an increase in footfall across all our departments.”
At Abraxas in Banbury in Oxfordshire, store manager Ellie Ponder (who moved across to the branch for its re-opening) described a surge in bakeware sales when the shop reopened – from both customers and staff that had been using lockdown to build up their home cooking skills.
Top: Cilla and Camilla Cookshop in Sherborne was up more than 40% in July.
