Hope and Becky's Success Story

Hopefully Made, on Milk St, Shrewsbury, has become a hub for everyone from workers on the run to friends making time to catch up over a long brunch. Supplied and supported by other Shrewsbury businesses, the business combines a café downstairs with a screen printing studio upstairs, as well as utilising unused business space as office space for hire.

When they’re not building their slow fashion empire, caffeinating Shrewsbury, or teaching visiting classes the art of screen printing, Hope and Becky lead Shropshire Hill Club on friendly, wellness-boosting hill walks across the county.

The idea

Before Hopefully Coffee, Hopefully made was steadily developing a following as a maker of sustainable fashion and accessories. Hope and Becky worked as baristas in a Wellington coffee shop and, in their spare time, built their brand through an online shop and regular appearances at local markets.

As a Wellington native, Hope knew that Shrewsbury was home to the ideal customer base to support a creative business. Getting Hopefully made’s work into a shop front was an early priority for the pair, but with a busy and competitive local art scene, finding a long-term sales opportunity in an existing shop proved a challenge.

It was this challenge that spawned the idea to turn Hopefully made into its own brick & mortar business – combining a coffee shop to bring people in the door, and a retail space where they could discover Hope and Becky’s print works once over the threshold.

“We originally planned to just take the ground floor and split it in half, with takeaway coffee on one side and printing on the other – then the landlord offered us the whole building,” Becky explains, “so we had the larger opportunity to turn it into a café and community space, with the screen-printing studio upstairs.”

Encouraged by the community vibes on Milk St – the neighbours at Plantkind Falafel were helping the pair before they’d even signed the lease – they took on temporary jobs as Hermes delivery drivers to raise the deposit for the lease, and got to work. The contract was inked in February 2021, and the shop was open and employing staff by the end of April.

Hope takes credit for designing and curating the space, which is notably airy, spacious and anchored in natural textures of wood, leather, linen – and colours of green, brown and ochre.

Supporting the creative community

Key to the business's 3 years of success in Shrewsbury’s busy coffee shop space has been its support for local makers. All too familiar with the struggle to find retailers with the space to stock their products, Hope and Becky knew before the lease was signed that part of the shop’s business model would include a Maker Space where artists and designers could sell their products.

Each month, Hopefully made’s Maker Space features a different artist, taking 25% commission on sales (20% of which is VAT). Not only does this offer budding local creatives the chance to earn from their work and see how it performs in a retail environment, it also keeps the shop space fresh, bringing customers back month after month to view the new offering – and pick up a coffee and a bagel while they’re at it!

The hugely popular maker space is currently booked until 2025. “We always have a waiting list,” says Becky. “We’ve never had to reach out to find new makers. We knew Shrewsbury was a creative town before we opened, but we didn’t know how creative until we opened and found ourselves surrounded by creative types wanting to be involved.”

Why Shrewsbury?

“We were drawn to Shrewsbury by the number of independent shops and cafés there are in the town and the strong community they have. There was a visible customer base that was interested, invested and loyal to local businesses,” Becky recalls. “It’s also such a beautiful town, which brings customers out to explore the area. We fell in love with it visiting every weekend from Wellington and knew we’d want to set up our business here.”

“The small business community in Shrewsbury is so friendly and open,” Hope adds. “In other towns where we’d worked, when a new business opened it was seen as a threat, but Shrewsbury’s other coffee shops welcomed us with open arms. It’s little things – if one of the local cafes runs out of something, they can always count on neighbouring shops to help."

Shrewsbury’s also a great place to hire, says Becky. “We’ve been so lucky with the staff available. From day one we were fortunate to have a pool of candidates in which almost everyone we interviewed was perfect. The environment in Shrewsbury keeps staff around, and employing new people is never hard.”

Modern business in a medieval premises

Until recently, Hopefully Made had dealt with the ongoing challenge of a lack of full-fibre broadband connectivity – due to Shrewsbury’s winding medieval streets and listed buildings, parts of town have until recently been unable to access high-speed internet.

However, with support from Shrewsbury BID’s Full Fibre Connectivity initiative, Hope and Becky are among a number of businesses now fully connected to ultrafast broadband, providing them and their office tenants with the connectivity they need to keep up with the demands of modern business.