Small Business
A Rare Lockdown Retail Success Story
An English flour mill remakes its business for an entirely new customer and has never been busier.
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The Gilchesters Organics flour mill was lucky when a year’s worth of paper sacks arrived in February, a month before the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, locked down the country because of the coronavirus.
The response from consumers was immediate: panicked at rationing in supermarkets and bare shelves as the food supply chain struggled in the early weeks of the pandemic, people flocked to independent millers like Gilchesters in Stamfordham, some 15 miles northwest of Newcastle upon Tyne.
“Our business model completely changed,” says Billie Wilkinson, 53, who runs the company with her husband, Andrew, 55.