Taking on one of Stoke-on-Trent’s largest empty retail units and turning it into a pop-up creative department store may have been a risky project but husband and wife team Laura and Andy Nixon were determined to deliver the sort of experience usually found in larger cities.

Their concept, Keep it Local, provides a revenue stream for more than 200 small creative businesses and an opportunity for shoppers to support independent creatives from their home city.

After initially opening shops in Longton and then Newcastle-under-Lyme they opened the doors to ‘Staffordshire’s First Creative Department Store’ in The Potteries Shopping Centre in October 2023.

That store has been visited by more than 330,000 people, generated £136,000 in revenue passed directly back to 212 small Stoke-on-Trent businesses and created 11 seasonal jobs.

£2,600 was raised for Royal Stoke Cancer Centre, £3,500 was raised for Greyhound Gap and two internships were created for students

“Keep It Local began as a hobby back in 2021,” said Laura. “Both my husband and I visited local artisan markets and indie businesses and posted on our social media – we loved the idea of supporting local people in their quest to share their talents.

“We are also fiercely passionate about our city and the creative DNA that runs through its people. Our mission to get more people shopping locally has been a huge driver.

“The store injected both magic and nostalgia back into the City Centre. One lovely customer said it instilled the magic of Christmas that they hadn’t felt since Lewis’s had closed down.

“We were told by customers of the many local gifts that were travelling all over the world to friends and family, oatcake mix to the states, ceramic potbanks to Dubai, local prints to Australia and the list goes on.

“We were visited by people across the UK, including London, and we had regular visitors from the East Midlands. Our favourite story was a couple staying in Manchester who were visiting the UK from Austria. They had heard of our store and came on the train to see it.

“The next day a lady from Birmingham came in and said that she was on her way back from Manchester after a work night away and a couple from Austria staying at the hotel had told her of the store – both of these visitors purchased oatcake mix to take home.”

What Laura and Andy had initially intended to be a pre-Christmas pop-up is still running and has provided six permanent jobs. They have also opened a Cheshire store in Warrington.

Laura added: “We believe in our city and the people within it and for everyone that says ‘No one comes to Hanley anymore’ I promise you – they do! And we have the footfall figures to prove it!”

Keep It Local has entered the High Street Impact category of the University of Staffordshire Business Awards.