Supporting Bristol's first black-owned pop up shop

Bristol based beauty entrepreneur and owner of Kitchen Cosmetics, Latoya Adlam, has made her dream of creating a shop to provide a platform for black-owned businesses a reality with the help of YTKO and North and East Bristol Enterprise Support (NEBES).

After months of business planning, strategy and pure dedication, Latoya has created a city centre pop-up which will provide black-owned businesses with a supportive community and retail opportunities to showcase their products and services in the heart of Bristol.

The inspiration for Latoya is deep-rooted in her journey with her current business, Kitchen Cosmetics. Latoya says, “My inspiration for the pop-up came off the back of rejection. I had applied many times to several different concept stores with my business, and I think I had been rejected 17 times”. Latoya continues, “I remember thinking ‘I wish I had a space where black owned businesses felt celebrated, welcomed and where people can see them for all their glory’.”

The Pop-Up Shop will provide up to 40 businesses with a retail revenue stream, help create jobs, as well as providing creative workshops and training on business ownership, crafts, networking and so much more. Additionally, a percentage from every purchase will be donated to three Bristol based non-profit charities via KC Causes.

Enrolling onto the North and East Bristol Business Support (NEBES) programme back in March 2021, Latoya was given instant free support to help with her business strategy and marketing. “The support has been very hands-on and has included financial support, valuable introductions, networking and marketing strategy. I realised I didn’t have much structure before I got help from NEBES.”

Following months of support to help grow and expand her shop idea, Latoya and NEBES have now collaborated to turn her pop-up shop vision into a reality. “I’m so excited to bring the KC Concepts Pop-Up Shop to life; this is the concept shop that Bristol and it’s diverse community needs.”

The KC Concepts Pop-Up Shop will take place at the Galleries shopping mall in Bristol and will run from 2nd October – 14th November 2021, during Black History Month UK. The shop, which is enabled by NEBES, will be celebrating UK black owned businesses and empowering more people to begin their own business journey with the free support available from North and East Bristol Enterprise Support.

When asked about NEBES, Latoya said: “The quicker you can get support, the quicker you can get your business going and add value to what you’re doing. North and East Bristol Enterprise Support has added so much value to every part of KC Concepts. I’m 3 years into being a business owner and I’ve learnt so much that I didn’t think I needed to know or knew that I was even missing”.