Roots Refills in Gloucester to stay open after rescue mission

A Gloucester refill shop is staying open following a rescue mission.

Roots Coffee shut following a challenging year on 10 February, with the refill shop at the back of the Kingsholm café remaining open.

The shop, which offers loose food and a refill service on Alvin Street, was due to close on Thursday.

It is hoped the café will reopen later this year, potentially in May, but "various things" have to be put in place first.

Roots Rescue, a business plan put together by campaigning locals, has secured the future of the shop, café and community hub by raising enough money for the initial assets transfer.

It is hoped a crowdfunder will go live shortly to generate funds to pay back a loan, and eventually the premises rent and staff members.

Ally Hardy of Roots Rescue said "it's amazing how important" the community space is.

"The refill shop is not going to close, at least not any time soon," Ms Hardy said.

"We've been able to secure the asset transfer from the original Roots and while the café can't reopen immediately, the refill shop can carry on."

The news has been shared to customers via social media, with many saying how delighted they are.

"It's been a long process but also a really quick process," Ms Hardy said.

"We've had to try and get as much of this in place as we can in a really short time but we just wanted to make sure everything was definitely happening before we got ourselves excited and our customers excited."

Ms Hardy said there was always "hope" that Roots would stay open.

She said: "There was always a hope in our hearts that it wouldn't close and there was also plans that if the new Roots Rescue group couldn't take over the whole thing that the refill shop would actually be sold as a going concern.

"As a Kingsholm resident, I think I was always hopeful it would continue anyway.

"It's amazing how important it is actually. There's a lot of coffee shops in Gloucester and there's a lot of places to eat but for some reason, Roots has a heart in the community that other places don't have.

"I wouldn't say it's anything top-of-the-range, it's not really cheap but it's just good to be there and an enjoyable place to meet."

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