New Fillfull eco-shop to open in Sidmouth town centre

A new eco food and gift shop is to open in Sidmouth after the Covid restrictions are lifted.

Fillfull already has a branch in Ottery St Mary, and the owner is now preparing to expand into the former Santander bank premises in Fore Street.

The shop will sell dry foods such as beans, pasta, rice and lentils, along with tea and coffee, cooking ingredients, oils, and spices. There are also eco-friendly homewares and gifts.

Customers will be able to bring their own containers, weigh them and add as much or as little of the product as they want, and just pay for what they've got – there's no pre-packaging and no waste.

Fillfull opened its first plastic-free eco-shop in Ottery St Mary in August 2018, and it was a huge success.

Owner Dan Prince then opened a branch in Sidmouth at the end of 2019, but soon realised that the premises in Cross Street were too small, and closed it down.

He said: "We couldn't offer our customers what we wanted to."

The former Santander building is far more spacious, and Dan and his two staff are looking forward to welcoming Sidmouth residents and visitors when they open, probably in April.

He said the Sidmouth shop will be offering a slightly different range of product to the Ottery branch: "We're going to be doing a lot more eco-gifts there, just to cater for more people, because obviously there are a lot more tourists who aren't going to be that interested in dried pasta, there'll be lots of people there who're out for the day."

The Ottery shop is currently open five days a week, with social distancing, screens and other Covid precautions, and offers click and collect and free local deliveries via its website.