Listen: The Malton business owner who gambled that growth was the answer to lockdown

The owner of one of Malton’s best known shops has been telling YorkMix that moving to a larger store was vital to protect the business during the Covid lockdowns.

For Liz Kemp of Kemps General Store it was a very risky move. But she thought that social distancing measures would be an issue for a long time to come and more floor space was essential to protect her business from going under.

She has been talking about the effect of the pandemic on the David Dunning Late Show on YorkMix Radio.

Before the lockdown Liz had been thinking about expanding the business in the Market Place by moving into the premises next door and setting up a bookshop too.

She opened up a branch in Whitby in 2019 but had missed the summer season as there were delays signing all the paperwork. So she was looking forward to Easter 2020 to get it fully established.

Like everybody else Liz had no idea how difficult the next 12 months would end up being. Suddenly everything was paused as the effect of Covid-19 took a hold on the economy.

“It was an enormous shock and we started to ask what can we do in the short term to hold on to our cash?

“We just didn’t know how long this is going last. How could we continue to trade in some shape or form? There was so much uncertainty in the first few weeks with things changing all the time.

“We decided to park the idea of expanding in Malton because it was just too scary. However a couple of months into the pandemic we realised that we could go under if we didn’t!”

She felt that they needed to be bigger so they could work around social distancing rules and get more people safely into the store. She didn’t want the business to fail but spending cash at a time like that wasn’t an easy decision to make.

“It was a risk not to but it was a risk to actually go ahead too. We opened on October 1st last year, adding a bookshop and four times as much floor space.

“I think we probably wouldn’t be here now had we not expanded.”

A family business

Kemps General Store was founded in 2017 by Liz Kemp, a shopkeeper’s daughter and passionate supporter of the North Yorkshire market town of Malton.

Liz grew up in the small village of Bramham, in West Yorkshire.  Her mother and father ran a small shop in the village centre, on what was then the A1. 

The environment made its mark on Liz, who saw first-hand the care and attention her parents put into running the successful business.  

“Real customer service existed then, even if it had no name.  There was a profound recognition you were relied upon as a business – customers needed to know that you would be open when you said you were.” She remembers.

Liz Kemp graduated from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in stage management.  She is an experienced event production specialist, working with some of the best known names in the business.  

Her career includes leading roles within the industry, in London and Europe, working with organisers of conferences, public events and festivals.

After 20 years she decided that it was time to honour her childhood roots and take on a new challenge. 

She decided to set up shop, but not just any shop, an emporium of the beautiful and unusual and an inspiring book space to appeal to all ages.  Alongside curating a range of imaginative and mostly UK made products, Liz’s vision was to re-create the welcoming and vibrant atmosphere her parents had cultivated over 40 years ago.

Another lockdown concerns

Today the shop stands as a testament to tradition and the old ways of doing things, a small oasis which reflects a slower, calmer way of life.  However alongside heritage, there is also certainly room for the new. Whilst the service may be exactly the same as all those years ago, the products are decidedly much more exciting. Also, since the shock of lockdown, the internet plays a much bigger part in sales too.

Liz moved the original Kemps General Store in Malton, to larger premises last year and opened Kemps Books as part of the Kemps offer in autumn 2020.  There is also Kemps on the Coast in Whitby.

Looking to the future she wants to be ready for the possibility of what she describes as another short sharp lockdown before the end of the year.

“That gives us challenges because we’re trying to build up our cash reserves again which were much depleted.

“We also need to buy a lot of stock for Christmas in order to be able to deliver. So our constant issues are cash flow and making sure that we’re secure enough with enough stock.

“That’s the big juggling act at the moment because there are a lot of unknown still. It’s (covid) not gone away, I don’t think.”