The owner of Bo-Tanical at Norwich Market has reopened the stall after lockdown and moved into a warehouse after enjoying a huge growth in online sales.
Joe Ridoutt previously owned an estate agents, but swapped selling homes for house plants in October 2018 when he opened a pop-up stall at Norwich Market.
Mr Ridoutt then moved to several other pitches, but he has since returned to his original location and expanded into the neighbouring one, at numbers 14 and 15.
Since 2018, he has built up a large social media following, with over 42,000 Instagram followers, and before temporarily closing due to coronavirus he was selling 1,000 plants a week.
Thankfully, he had launched a website last October, where customers can buy plants, such as aloe vera, cacti and succulents and pots with nationwide delivery.
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Mr Ridoutt prepared himself for some time off in lockdown, but instead he was busier than ever as online orders soared and he now sends out “around 500 orders a week”.
Due to its popularity, Mr Ridoutt moved into a warehouse in Hurricane Way, next to Norwich Airport, to store the plants as there was no longer room in his Spixworth home.
He said: “We started in a single stall as a pop-up shop - since then we took on two stalls, opened our website, employed multiple staff and moved into a 2,000 square foot warehouse.”
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The market stall has now finally reopened following a refit and has been rebranded as Bo-Tanical Outlet, with a separate Instagram page.
Mr Ridoutt added: “We tend to find when new stock is added to the website you won’t always sell out of everything, so the stall offers us the perfect opportunity to sell remaining stock at a discount.
“We still have new stock solely for the stall and it still sells plants, pots, terrariums and other bits.
“We refitted the stall so we can have an entrance and exit, plus better airflow, and it is much more fluid now which feels nice.”
The stall is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am to 4pm.
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