Month: June 2025

Shoppers can look forward to a brand-new promotional video showcasing Bury St Edmunds eclectic mix of independent retailers, which is released this week ahead of Independent’s Day UK.

Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District (BID) has supported the Independent’s Day UK national awareness campaign for 15 years with its own campaign and promotional activity around the two-day Independents Day UK awareness days which this year are on Friday July 4 and Saturday July 5.

The video will be used on the BID’s marketing platforms to encourage shoppers to explore the many indie retailers across the town centre and will be accompanied by a content marketing campaign from today (Monday June 23) to drive people to the Independents Guide on the BID website at www.ourburystedmunds.com/independents/ 

There are more than 300 independents in Bury St Edmunds town centre and shops and businesses are encouraged to display the BID’s ‘Proud to be an Independent’ window sticker.

Mike Kirkham, the BID’s Business Support Manager, said: “Research has shown that nationally 55% of customers shop at an independent once a week or more and that for every pound spent with a small business over 50% stays in the local economy.

“We are so lucky in Bury to have such a fabulous range of indies throughout the town centre – it’s almost 60% of our businesses and there is one on almost every town centre street.  This is complemented as well by all the independent traders who take part in the regular markets.” 

Independent shops featured in the video include: Smoking Monkey Antiques, Vinyl Hunter, Pocketwatch and Petticoats, Luna House Boutique, Loft & Spires, Lisa Angel, The Parsley Pot, Ada Baby, Javelin, Trotter and Deane, and Model Junction.

Anne Hawes, owner of Luna House Boutique in Butter Market and 3 Cats Vintage in St John’s Street, commented: “We were delighted to be part of the new promotional video. We’re grateful to be part of such a vibrant independent business community in Bury St Edmunds town centre and proud to be offering a wide range of vintage and preloved pieces to customers of all ages.”

The campaign has also been welcomed by one of the longest established businesses in the town.  Menswear and schoolwear specialist Aubyn Davies in St John’s Street was founded in 1906 and is owned today by the founder’s great grandson Richard Poole. 

He said: “I’m delighted that independent retailers are given the opportunity to be part of this campaign.  Our Bury St Edmunds BID does a great job of promoting the town centre and working together really confirms that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.’  St John’s Street is a lovely community of independent businesses and is often highlighted as a must-visit part of town.”

The Parsley Pot in Abbeygate Street is another of the independent shops featured in the promotional video. Owner Suzanne Cooper added: “It is great to be included in the new promotional video to highlight the huge number of wonderful independent retailers in our beautiful town.”

The Our Bury St Edmunds BID campaign around Independents Day UK runs until Saturday July 5.  Find out much more about what the town has to offer by visiting www.ourburystedmunds.com or its social media feeds.

What a busy few weeks it’s been – not just with our BID activities where we’ve got a lot of promotions and campaigns underway, but in the town centre generally with the latest footfall figures showing that to the end of May footfall is up by 3.5% compared to last year.  This is great news as we are still in challenging times for businesses but more people visiting the town centre is always a positive.

We had some wonderful feedback about our VE Day 80^th anniversary commemorative trail – including people telling us that they found shops they didn’t know existed.  We will be launching a similar trail to commemorate the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day over the summer holidays.  Once again there will be Town Centre Gift Cards to be won.

This week though, has seen the launch of our two week promotion of our wonderful independent businesses under our ‘Independents Day UK’ campaign.  It all builds up to ‘Independents Day’ itself which is celebrated nationally this year over July 4 – 5. It’s something that we have successfully promoted for the last 15 years and I’d encourage you to have a look at our video about supporting our local shops on our website and social media feeds.

While the campaign is mainly about shopping at local independent retailers we have also launched our new Food and Drink Tours this month in partnership with the town’s Tour Guides.  We have 12 BID member businesses involved in this and the first tour took place this week.  It’s a chance to learn about the town centre’s foodie history with some taster stops at café’s, bars and specialist retailers.  With the Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival over the August bank holiday weekend it’s a great reminder of why Bury St Edmunds is Suffolk’s foodie capital.

It’s also been a busy time in the town centre as there’s been plenty of activity around some new businesses that have either opened or are preparing to.  Work is underway at the former Gastrono-me on Abbeygate Street as it transforms into PrimaVista and Anagram Audio in Churchgate Street opened last week.  There is change too in The Traverse where new salon Bonded by Hair has opened and Sugartown Toys are also coming soon.

Before we know it, it will be the start of the school summer holidays and no doubt there are many parents wondering what to purchase as a gift for teacher at the end of the school year.  An Our Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Gift Card could be the answer.  It can be spent in over 70 local businesses and can be purchased online or in a number of outlets in the town centre.  While we do now offer an e-card version the actual card can still be wrapped as an end-of-term gift.  Find out more at www.ourburystedmunds.com. 

An ambassador for Chinese cooking with numerous TV shows and cookery books to her name will make her first appearance at the Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival this summer. Ching-He Huang MBE has hosted ‘Chinese Food Made Easy’ for the BBC as well as ‘Exploring China – A Culinary Adventure’ with Ken Hom and participated in many other favourites including ‘Saturday Kitchen’.

Ching will demonstrate her trademark ‘minimum fuss, maximum flavour’ ethos in the Chefs on Stage Cookery Theatre on Bank Holiday Monday (August 25), which is the second day of the free-admission event. She’ll host three demonstrations with chefs from some of the town’s most popular establishments also taking to the stage across the two day event. Among those set to appear on the Sunday are festival veteran Zack Deakins who is chef-patron of 1921 on Angel Hill and the chefs from Churchgate Street’s new fine dining restaurant Bellota.

Many other town centre businesses will be participating in the event either with a stall or on the stage. The Angel Hotel, Lotties Waffles, Beautiful Beers, Wine Cellar and Peck are just some of those who’ll be tempting the tastebuds of visitors. Across the festival there will be stalls selling international cuisine including Albanian and Greek, artisan cheeses and a farmers’ market selling local produce. Even pets can find a tasty treat by visiting stalls from Norfolk Doggy Deli or Untamed cat food.

The Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival is organised by the Business Improvement District (BID) organisation for the town. Our Bury St Edmunds BID Chief Executive Mark Cordell said: “We are very much looking forward to welcoming Ching-He Huang to Suffolk’s foodie capital. Her approach is to show that Chinese cooking need not be complicated or time-consuming and it’ll be fabulous to find out about her delicious recipes in our theatre kitchen.

“We’ve once again had a huge amount of interest from BID member businesses to take part in the event as well and there will be lots of our favourite regular festival stalls returning. With the launch of our foodie tours in the town this summer, the Our Bury St Edmunds Food & Drink Festival is something no foodie should want to miss.”

The festival offers a number of other attractions for all the family including mini-golf, a helter-skelter and fairground rides. Full details about the event, which runs from 10am to 5pm on Sunday 24 and Monday 25 August, can be found at: www.ourburystedmunds.com/foodanddrinkfestival.

Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides have teamed up with businesses in the town centre to launch a new Food & Drink Tour in Suffolk’s Foodie Capital.

The Tour Guides have worked with Our Bury St Edmunds BID and BID member businesses on the new tour which launches on Thursday 26 June and will run on selected Thursday afternoons during the summer from 2pm to 4.30pm.

Tour participants will enjoy a two and a half-hour food and drink themed tour of the town stopping off at six local businesses to try bite-sized samples of food and drink, hearing about the business and the local history of the building and location.

The tours seek to combine the reputation of Bury St Edmunds as the Foodie Capital of Suffolk, the popularity of the town’s guided tours and the quality of local produce and specialities available in the town.

The tour takes you through the heart of Bury St Edmunds, offering visitors a taste of the town and a chance to discover Bury’s food and drink history including Cook’s Row, the Abbot’s feasts, and how a maltster almost destroyed the town.

Along the way, guests will enjoy bite sized samples of delicious food and drink and meet the people behind the town’s independent businesses.

Mark Cordell, CEO of Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District, said: “I am very proud of the reputation Bury St Edmunds has as the Foodie Capital of Suffolk and we already work closely with the fabulous Tour Guides, who provide a number of informative and enjoyable tours around our historical town. So, I thought, why not combine the two?

“My wife and I have enjoyed many a foodie tour whilst visiting towns and cities abroad and felt that the concept would work well here, and I am delighted that the Tour Guides were happy to add this tour to their repertoire. I am confident that the tours will become very popular and hopefully in due course their frequency and the number of businesses taking part will increase.”

In the first instance the guides will work with six businesses in the town, and they hope to expand this to more businesses who wish to showcase their offer as the

year progresses. The first six are Procopio’s Pantry, Adnams, Nethergate Wines, Marimba, No5 Angel Hill and The Wine Cellar.

Adrian Tindall, Chairman of Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides, said: “We’re very excited to be working with Our Bury St Edmunds BID and its members to offer this first tasting tour of the town. We shall be sharing morsels of Bury’s fascinating gastronomic history, from its medieval marketplace to the fine dining of today, while stopping off to sample some of the culinary delights of Suffolk’s Foodie Capital.”

Tickets for the Bury St Edmunds Food and Drink Tour are £25. To book visit the Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides website: www.burystedmundstourguides.org