'I am keen to help other people follow their dream'

What does your business do?

We hire our commercial prep kitchen and storage space to local food businesses who perhaps want to make the leap from a home-kitchen environment to help them grow and scale up.

We also attract established food businesses who may have run out of space in their service kitchens, or which need to scale up seasonally to meet higher demand. Current clients include a vegan street-food business, a company that provides packed lunches for film and TV sets, and a new ice-cream company.

Where is it based?

We’re based in a lovely south-facing waterfront location at Hove Enterprise Centre, part of Shoreham Port, right near Hove Lagoon.

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We have excellent vehicle access and transport links, and our central location means it’s great for our clients and their customers.

How many on your team and who are they?

At the moment it’s just my son, Sam, and I. He’s on a government Kickstarter scheme for six months, so I’m helping him get a good grounding in a range of business and marketing skills.

How long have you been going?

We’ve been running our own food business from this location for over a year, but the Sussex Prep Kitchen has only been up and running for about three months but is already proving really popular.

David Copeland's kitchen

How did the idea come about?

Firstly, my own food business wasn’t fully utilising the space so I got thinking about how I could make it work harder for me. Secondly, I remembered when I was starting my food business how difficult it was to find any shared kitchen space in Brighton and Hove – there seems to be a real shortage of it.

With such a vibrant food scene in Brighton and lots of small operators selling at farmers’ markets, events and festivals, I thought there must be people just like me who need space to prep their food plus store all the catering equipment and paraphernalia you tend to amass.

How have you coped/adapted during the pandemic?

My own food business has weathered the storm quite well, and it’s great to be able to take advantage of the Kickstarter scheme to get an extra pair of hands. What I’ve seen with the Sussex Prep Kitchen is there’s lots of new food businesses popping up.

The warehouse

I think some of this might be people who previously worked in the hospitality sector (or other sectors) who’ve decided to follow their dream of starting their own food venture rather than working for somebody else. I’m really keen to offer those types of businesses the space to grow and thrive.

What would you like to tell people about your business?

We offer an all-in-one hire package which includes full use of the prep kitchen with ambient, refrigerated and frozen storage space at very competitive prices. We even have an electric van which people can hire as an add-on service if they need us to do local deliveries for them.

Some businesses hire a few hours from us to start with, but what many do is book a few regular sessions each week on a monthly basis so it becomes their primary base. We offer three daily prep sessions, each is eight hours duration, seven days a week. You can choose a morning session (6am to 2pm), an afternoon session (2pm to 10pm) or a nightshift session (10pm to 6am).

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The morning/afternoon sessions are £99/hour and the nightshift is £79/hour, and we offer a ten per cent discount for pre-booking ten or more sessions at a time.

What are your plans/hopes for the future?

I’d love to get up to full capacity with the existing kitchen, then look at developing a second one in this space which could run in tandem, perhaps even moving the storage out into an adjacent unit.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?

The best way to see what we’re all about is to come down for a viewing. Drop us a line at hello@sussexprepkitchen.co.uk or call us on 07946 852133.

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