Member Article

Stockton Council to provide local entrepreneurs and startups with retail space

Stockton Council are oening an Enterprise Arcade, Stockton Town Centre, where startup businesses and up-and-coming entrepreneurs are invited to set up shop for reduced rates.

The new Arcade, which will open at the end of October at 35-37 High Street, provides low cost, low risk retail space to new businesses, plus a full package of business support provided by Retail Development Agency, ‘B-Supplied’.

Up to 16 fledgling retailers will have the opportunity to test trade to pursue their business idea and discover whether it is practical and viable.

The town’s Enterprise Arcade has been open in other, much smaller town centre accommodation, for the last four years.

More than a dozen of the businesses which have started life in the Arcade have gone on to trade independently in the town, ranging from traditional sweet shop, Chocs Away to Jack and Jill’s Wooden Toys and Mini Munchkins, a children’s clothes shop.

Pet boutique, Wags and Whiskers, moved into a unit on Dovecot Street in Stockton Town Centre after spending six months in the Enterprise Arcade.

Business Owner, Carl Shepherdson, said: “I am grateful for all the support Stockton Council’s Enterprise Arcade has given me in the last six months.

“By trading from the Arcade I was able to see if my business idea was viable.

“I’m really excited about the coming months and the completion of the town’s regeneration programme.

“I am so pleased to be able to offer something different in Stockton Town Centre.”

Stockton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport, Councillor Mike Smith, said: “I would like to encourage anyone with a business idea they would like to test trade to get in touch and find out more about this fantastic opportunity.

“The scheme has already helped a number of people create robust and sustainable businesses in Stockton and through this larger facility we are going to be able to help even more new traders follow in their footsteps.”