New look shop and new home for Horsham Matters

In just one week the team stripped out and redecorated the East Street shop, totally changing the look and making space for ‘upcycled’ items of furniture.

Karen Rayner, operations manager said: “People keep coming in and saying how good the shop looks and how they really like what we’ve done with it. It has a whole different feel to it and has really created some interest amongst our customers. We’ve been really fortunate to have some exceptional pieces of furniture donated and the team doing the upcycling have done some brilliant work – we could have sold our display ladders ten times over.”

On January 3, following seven very successful years at the Tanfield Centre the charity opened a much bigger store in Redkiln Close next to Brewers. Chief executive David Sheldon said: “This new superstore is a really exciting opportunity for us, it will be nearly twice as big as out current Tanfield store, which will allow us to display much more stock and will provide customers with much greater choice.

“It will also have a covered outdoor sales area where we can display outdoor furniture and bikes, which has been a long term ambition of ours.”

Now the move to Redkiln Close is completed, Horsham Matters hopes that these changes will help raise more funds for their work running the Horsham District Foodbank, the Horsham Churches Night Shelter and in providing furniture and white goods for those in crisis as well as their Community Youth Work programme. Increased income will also increase the amount they are able to give away to other community groups through their Community Fund, which has donated over £200,000 since starting out.

The Charity welcomes support from anyone who is looking for an opportunity to volunteer to help their local community.

Community support manager, Ruth Hodgson said: “With the new showroom in East Street and the Superstore there are also sort of new opportunities.

“We continue to look for people to help us in sorting donations in the warehouse and now we also have opportunities to help us refurbish or make items for sale as well as the opportunity to sell them in these new stores.”

Further details are available from the charity, on 0300 124 0204.

The children’s toys and baby equipment that were in the East Street store are currently being sold from Tanfield and will move to the new Superstore in January but the Charity is also trying to find new ways of making these available to local residents. Ruth added: “We are currently looking into the possibility of running a small outlet where the goods will be available to anyone for a donation.

“We have a great place to run this from, but we needs volunteers to staff it.”

Anyone interested in helping support local families access affordable toys and baby equipment can contact Horsham Matters on 0300 124 0204.