Miraculous is the only word that I can use to describe Helen Tweddle’s story of the explosion of her business. The Malt House Emporium, located on the A46 near Stroud, was built in 1822 on the Manor of Painswick, owned by William Bliss since 1439. Back then it was used as a malt house but today, nearly 200 years later, Helen turned it into the majestic emporium that it has become.
The sheer size of the building is impressive but as you walk inside you are blown away by how many beautiful vintage things are available to feast the eyes on. A superb collection of Antiques, Retro, Vintage large and small pieces all available under one roof. I had already picked up a gorgeous little Fortnum & Mason basket on my way up the steps before I even entered the building and I knew that I could easily furnish my entire home with the lovely pieces big and small in the Malt House Emporium.
Helen’s story started less than a year ago when she had come from the corporate world in the big city to retire and enjoy country life. After three weeks she got bored and began trading in antiques just for fun. She very quickly took on a little bay in Gloucester but still wasn’t satisfied.
“Miraculous is the only word that I can use to describe Helen Tweddle’s story” Tweet This!So on 19th November 2014 after a quick turn around with estate agents, she opened the doors to the Malt House with 9 dealers. Within four months she has sold out all of the available space in the two story 14,500 square foot building and will have turned over in the region of £1,000,000 by the end of her first year of trading.
Trying to find the catch I dug a little deeper to find out how Helen did it. Helen simply replied that she did some Facebook promotion and got in touch with some traders that she met along the way. That’s it!
So I tried to dig because this still didn’t make sense, so I asked about her struggles to which Helen replied, “There haven’t been any, everything has gone smoothly.”
The next steps for this amazing business woman is to open a grand, fully licensed restaurant by the end of the year. Workshop space is also available for £100 per day so that people can teach their trade to others. Events, fayres, live Jazz and much more is in the pipeline and if you really want to spend some money, Helen will even open the Malt House Emporium for private shopping in the evening by arrangement.
Helen Tweddle
Malt House Emporium
www.malthouseemporium.com
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