Planning for a healthy future

10:11am Thursday 9th March 2006

A couple who planted their life savings into Croydon's first organic food store are hoping to see their investment grow.

William and Virginia Chapman recently opened Chapman's Organic Products and hope to start an organic empire from their base in Croydon town centre.

The store, in St George's Walk, is the borough's first strictly organic food store and Virginia admits she is proud of the tag.

She said: "We are very much looking forward to making this store a success.

"From here we want to go on to open more stores in Croydon and throughout the UK."

Mrs Chapman, who caught the organic bug after incorporating healthy eating into one of her tourism and hospitality degree modules, says her passion for freshly-grown products is what convinced the pair to open the store.

"After doing my degree I realised there was a market for this type of shop and with my passion for healthy eating I knew I wanted to open this store.

"To be honest we wanted to open up a restaurant but it was difficult for us to raise the funds because I had just graduated so we used our savings to open this store."

As St George's Walk is to be demolished to make way for the £500million Park Place shopping centre, the Chapmans only have a two-year lease.

But they insist they are confident enough to be able to extend their stay in the town.

Mrs Chapman added: "The lease is only for two years but we are looking to find suitable premises in Croydon for us to eventually move into at the end of it.

"Ideally, we would like to open more stores throughout the country but that obviously depends on how successful we are."

With the store barely two months old the couple are confident their dream can become a reality.

"I'm very pleased with the way things are going at the moment.

"The way we have marketed ourselves locally has really helped and we already have our regular customers.

"In five years I want to have opened five or six stores throughout the country and have three to four restaurants as well," she added.