Supporting Small Businesses - Raft DIB CIC

Duck in Boots began in 2017 thanks to the hard work and vision of it's founder, Sarah and her family. The doors first opened when her new baby was just a few days old and she had her toddler at her side.

The space created, which now consists of two shops, to pop up shop pods and a food shack, has been a creative hub for makers and a place of inspiration and learning for so many in the community. Constantly adapting to meet the needs of the communities that it works to serve, Duck in Boots weathered the initial Covid storm and even won recognition by picking up a small business of 2020 award from Lloyds Bank & The Times.

The formal not for profit entity was set up in 2021 with a board of voluntary directors and plans were put in place to launch new community classes and support for the micro businesses.

Sadly, with the steep rise in bills not only personally for our volunteers, including Sarah who has given in excess of 40 hours a week since the space launched meaning they now need to seek paid employment in order to support their families, but the costs of electric which are nearly triple for the site alongside the drop in footfall and sales, the site is faced with at least a 75% closure by the end of April. This means we could loose both shops, pods and shack in just a few weeks.

These costs have impacted the businesses and people the space supports meaning more and more are having to withdraw to save on their own travel costs and time commitment. In order to survive we need to raise funding for overheads, support staff and repairs. 

Duck in Boots has been a haven and hub for creatives since it began and has also been a place of learning. It has helped to connect people and has been a place of support.

The space has offered everything from children's workshops to wellbeing sessions and with so many exciting plans it could be rolling out, instead, energy will have to be channelled into saving what we can of this wonderful little gem in the heart of Sudbury town centre.

Please help us save even just a tiny part of it.

If we can achieve our first target, we will be able to hopefully keep one store open but it needs further adaption to accommodate our disabled team members and we need to repair the damage from the break in a couple of months ago at the original store.

This means any support given will go to good use even if it isn't enough to save us.

Closing any part of the business has costs attached and moving into one store also has costs. The money raised will help with all of these and help to offset the overheads of trading at this quiet time of year while we can establish what parts of the physical site can remain at this time. 

Our website will remain regardless and we are continuing to work on all possible solutions to the site alongside this crowd funder.

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