The Beverley Card Company

A Beverley business owner has expanded into new, larger premises and won a top national award after accessing more than £5,000 in grant funding with the help of Invest East Yorkshire’s Business Support Services team. 

Donna Stocks, who owns The Beverley Card Company on Dyer Lane in the town, first made contact with the Invest East Yorkshire team when she took over an existing greetings card shop known as Special Days. After getting in touch with the team via its online grant funding portal, Donna was delighted to learn that she was eligible to receive a Love Your High Street grant of more than £1,900 towards the cost of carrying out work on her new shop premises. 

Donna’s fledgling business was soon going from strength to strength and quickly outgrew its existing premises. Having identified larger shop premises to move into, in 2023 she contacted the Business Support Services team again and was able to access a second grant of more than £3,300. Donna used this to transform a derelict former charity shop into much larger premises, bringing the vacant shop back into use and, at the same time, further enhancing Beverley’s shopping offer. 

As well as occupying new, larger premises, Donna’s growing business now employs a team of four people and won the ‘Best Greeting Card Newcomer’ Award at the 2023 Greeting Cards Retail Awards, known as the RETAS, beating off fierce competition from businesses around the country. 

Donna was guided through the grant application process by Business Adviser Trevor Douglas, who visited her premises on numerous occasions. 

Part of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Invest East Yorkshire’s Business Support team works closely with businesses on projects that will help them to grow and evolve, as well as identifying any sources of funding that may be available to help them, such as the Love Your High Street grant accessed by Donna. It’s a funding scheme that can support local businesses, town and parish councils or organisations and community groups with projects that will help our high streets to flourish.  

Donna said: “I was very happy with the service Trevor provided through my Love Your High Street applications, and I’m impressed by the commitment of East Riding of Yorkshire Council to help high street businesses.”

If you’re looking for advice, support or want to check your eligibility for grant funding, visit www.investeastyorkshire.co.uk/business-support for more information.  

Beverley Bookshop

The global pandemic has certainly been a challenging time for us all, but especially for high street businesses that were forced to shut up shop for months on end, thanks to the lockdown restrictions introduced around the country to help prevent the spread of covid.

The situation demanded a lot of financial support for businesses from the government in order for them to keep head above water – and one such enterprise that benefited from East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s Love Your High Street Fund was The Beverley Bookshop, owned and run by Lucy Rawnsley.

The bookshop itself is something of a Beverley institution, having traded in the market town’s high street for almost 21 years!

Ms Rawnsley got in touch with the Invest East Yorkshire business support team and received a grant from the Love Your High Street fund, which she went on to use for a a rebrand and refurbishment, including improving the lighting, accessibility for wheelchairs, reorganising the store layout, and an external and internal repaint.

She had this to say about working with the team:

“I was guided through it by one of the council’s business advisers, who was very helpful and encouraging. I am delighted with the finished refurbishment [to the shop].

“We had a very clear vision of what we wanted to provide for our customers and they are hugely complimentary about it. I feel that we have improved what is on offer on the high street and by now being The Beverley Bookshop, our hope is to provide for our local community for many years to come.”

The Love Your High Street fund from East Riding of Yorkshire Council offered businesses, organisations and local towns and parish councils 100 per cent grants of up to £10,000 (subject to meeting eligibility criteria) during the pandemic.

If you’d like to find out more about how Invest East Yorkshire can help you develop your business in the future, get in touch with us today.