Hannah Paterson is an incredibly creative and clever businesswoman who opened her own stunning bulk wholefoods refillery in Auckland earlier this year. At Sprout the Grocer, Hannah has created a peaceful and beautiful grocery shopping experience (much much more pleasant than a Pak n Save) that is better for the planet. I was excited to talk to Hannah about how she motivated herself to completely follow a new direction with her career and take the plunge into her exciting new venture. Hannah shares a lot of similar values to Sunday Projects, and it is so inspiring seeing how Hannah has turned these values into a thriving business. As well as encouraging zero-waste, Sprout is also at the forefront of encouraging conscious and considered consumption, which is something I really want to do with Sunday Projects.

Why did you decide to start a refillery? Were there any other ideas you were playing around with before you settled on Sprout the Grocer?

I started reading and investigating more and more about climate change and that is what generated the shift that I wanted to work in sustainability. It took a little while for that to develop into a drive for change and then to combine this with my desire to work with food and work in a space which could create the same feelings of being in a market for me while helping to reduce our communities impact on our environment.

How long did it take to go from when the original idea sprouted (lol) to opening your doors? What took longer than you expected?

Hahaha the seed was planted a couple of years ago but it took me a really long time for me to openly tell people what I wanted to do and commit to it. Gaining up the confidence to start was probably the longest part of the journey then it just kind of picked up traction from there. Knowing that I would quickly run out of savings was a good incentive to open the doors as fast as possible once I stopped all other work and had secured the lease. Freight was the thing that took longer than expected. Holy moly that can take a while. I think we changed our opening date three times in the end because of freight delays. I ended up just telling people it was “coming soon.”

What do you wish you knew before starting Sprout? Any gems of wisdom for people wanting to start their own entrepreneurial or creative journeys?

Its kind of funny but I think it was really good going into a new business with a slight naivety about what was actually required. It meant that setting up Sprout wasn’t too overwhelming as I could just tick off one task at a time and in doing so that would generally figure out what the next task would be. That’s probably not the conventional advice from business books at all hahaha but boy oh boy it helped me to just start which I think is the hardest bit.

It is also really important to know that things that you could never imagine to go wrong can go wrong. For example, we had a swarm of bees enter the flat above the shop which could have easily swarmed into our shop instead. So although people tell you if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, I think there are always going to be a few situations like a bee invasion that you just have to figure out as you go.

The final thing I would say is its terrifying but you just have to have faith it can work and then know who to go to if that faith starts to waiver and you are in need of a pep talk.

I think the ‘sourcing’ side of things is such an interesting part of your business – balancing local vs organic vs affordability vs quality. You do an amazing job of balancing all these factors! What have you learned about what people look for in the food they buy?

Thank you! Sourcing has been really tricky. After opening, my gorgeous mum (and right hand Sprout) told me you can’t be everything to everyone and she is very right. We have a few pages in the diary of requests we get each day and jot down whether people are after more organic vs local vs priced well. We are trying to move as much of the produce to New Zealand products to reduce the carbon footprint from travelling but then this does mean that the ability to source organic and compete on pricing is really tricky. I am also conscious that in order to have the greatest impact on reducing waste, we need to be able to source food in very large bulk bags or reusable containers so also limits our suppliers. At this stage I am trying my best to see if there is a compromise e.g. source oats and flour from New Zealand and then have more organic dried produce from overseas until I can find some more viable options or a better compromise. We also have about a 50/50 split between organic and not organic as our main objective is to reduce waste so I am really conscious that I don’t want price to be a barrier.

Even in the past year since you opened, it is clear that climate change is a growing concern and people are really starting to change their consumption habits. What questions do you think we as consumers should ask ourselves before buying something?

Its incredible that more and more people are starting to think about this! I love it. My key questions would be;

Do I need this? This one is huge. 40% of the average New Zealand rubbish bin is food each week. When this goes into the rubbish tip, it cannot decompose naturally like it would in a compost, due to the lack of oxygen and then releases methane which is one of the key green house gasses. This is why its important to try to buy what you need and use left overs as much as possible.
Is there a waste free substitute? E.g. if I want to buy milk, can I buy it in a glass swap a bottle scheme?
Can I buy local and/ or organic and can I reduce my meat and dairy intake?

Then I would start to look at your waste and see what could create the greatest change in your life. E.g. if you love coffee, buying a reusable coffee cup could save you from throwing out hundreds of cups per year.

What has surprised you on your Sprout journey about branding, marketing and social media?

I have been surprised about how much word of mouth is when starting out. The ability to reach people in your neighbourhood through this is incredible and so it is a real blessing when your customers help advertise on your behalf!

The other thing that has surprised me about social media is how amazing it is to find solutions to reduce waste. For example when we were setting up, I had some left over wood. I put up a post on Instagram and it was snatched up quickly for children to play with. We have also been able to create circular economies with some of our boxes by finding other companies that want to use our old ones to send their packages in so they can save costs and this was all done through instragram too! It’s a nice easy spot to reach out to a lot of people to see if anyone will view your items as a bit of treasure.

In a world that focuses on the online, your store is a breath of fresh air and you have transformed the whole traditional grocery shopping experience for the better. How important was it to you to have a physical store rather than just online?

I think as more and more goes online, there has been an opposite reaction with people really wanting to feel a sense of community. Food and community for me are so intertwined. When I think back to any of my favourite places or events and times with my favourite people, food is almost always a feature if not central to the gathering or experience. This is why I wanted to initially create a beautiful space where people can come and take their time and have a relaxing shopping experience and have a chat at the shop before we move to online offerings as well.

What is a good book you have read recently and a song you love to listen to?

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is SO GRIPPING, a little bit spooky, but very good.

A song I have been belting is Easy by the Commodores. Love me some Commodores and then follow it up with anything by Otis Redding.

Can you tell me about a word you love using and why you love using it?

Serendipity. I think it is just the most beautiful word and its pretty rare that a serendipitous moment happens but when it does it is always good.

Can you shine the light on an ingredient you may not have otherwise known about before Sprout? Why do you love it and what do you like to do with it?

Freekeh. It is the best. Use it in Ottolenghis Pilaf and it is delightful. It is also quite a fun word and quick to cook. I also had used sumac a couple of times but now I am a little obsessed. What a spice.

If you had guessed what you would be doing when you were ten years old, what would you have said? What were the reactions of friends and family when you said you wanted to leave your accounting job (which you were clearly very good at!) and open Sprout the Grocer?

I thought being a singer would be a pretty glamorous job. I had a fair few day dreams about that and reenactments with my Bratz dolls. But unfortunately I was not blessed with any musical talent so eventually ended up doing accounting. When I told everyone what I wanted to it was definitely a mixed bag of reactions including a fair amount of surprise but overall everyone close to me was incredibly supportive and encouraging. There is no way I could have ever done it without consistent reinforcement that it had potential to work.

You are incredibly positive and it is lovely to be around. What do you think would make more people happy in the world?

Hahahah thank you! More time outside in the sunshine and more time doing what you love rather than biding time for the weekend.

Hope Hannah’s story inspires you to try something new or pursue an idea you have had brewing for a while. Hannah wears our long black Billie dress (our most popular garment for a reason!), which you can find in our shop here.

If you are in Auckland, I highly recommend a visit to Sprout to say hello to Hannah or her gorgeous mum, and to try some of the delicious dried mango she stocks. You can follow Sprout on Facebook, Instagram or visit the website to keep up to date with all the good things Hannah is creating.