Celebrating ten years of trading, David Tovey of MonTeas has been looking back over his time in Monmouth and spoke to the Beacon about his view of the situation he finds himself in.

He opened in 2012 and after the challenge of acquiring and funding the right location and the stock to sell, it was a matter of “going for it” and making MonTeas’ a shopping experience worthy of return and recommendation.

“Brexit and the Covid pandemic have both been immensely threatening to MonTeas’ existence but, in balance, changing packaging to plastic free in 2018 has been morally and commercially right with a boom in sales”, he said.

“It was surprising to find just how much turnover increased following closure of the two A40 services south of Monmouth, and, unfortunately, the severe drop in sales when they re-opened” he added.

Brexit and Covid are still “significant challenges and will be for more years to come. Footfall has decreased, costs are rising both in primary stock of teas, herbals and brewing paraphernalia but also in secondary stock of packaging and printing resources plus utility and property running costs.

“The brand of MonTeas will continue but the ongoing strategic business planning reflects town redevelopments and the ability of local government decision-makers to implement effective measures for the town’s sustainability needs, not to mention the crippling attack on businesses with property rates tax.”

Regarding the Covid changes and the evolving high street, David said that he has many local customers, not just within the Monmouth area, but stretching out past Abergavenny; Ross-on-Wye; also from Hereford / Lydney areas and significantly beyond.

“Without taking orders by telephone, email or via MonTeas website, the business would have suffered greatly due to Covid.

“However, due to measures implemented within the town under the banner of Covid, such disruption occurred that an alarming number of these ‘local’ customers prefer, once restrictions lifted, to continue shopping with MonTeas by telephone, email or online,” he said.

“The reason is simple - the town has been changed to its detriment and other, more accommodating shopping locations are preferred being easier to navigate with better parking and to park more cost effectively.

“As new homes have been pegged onto the outer reaches of town, businesses will not survive if shoppers are forced by overcrowding to shop elsewhere and the greatly diminished tourist pound becomes even more necessary to their survival.”

He said that recent years changes to Monnow Street have certainly been trials - trials in design and trials for every person trying to function within the town. “Change is necessary and every business should be continually planning to evolve and adapt. However, such commercial adaptation is fraught with difficulty, if not failure, when regional decision making is a process fundamentally complex and urgently in need of basic review. The implementation of recent decisions to modify Monmouth has been surprisingly disturbing.”

He went on to say Monmouth is a beautifully located town with architecture and history enviable far and wide, and offered MonTeas an excellent opportunity to make its mark. However, he sees a very different town now to when he first viewed it as a potential business location.

“Recent changes and subsequent effects on running a main street business have been alarming and unbelievable - not in a good way either. Business survival is entwined with many influencing factors but the most significant and damaging challenges today and for tomorrow are two-fold. Firstly, the non-domestic rates tax imposed from central government / Welsh Assembly which town businesses have been ravaged by.

Secondly, town Covid and improvement measures have changed the shape, look, feel and usage of town spaces. Redesigning Monmouth has introduced more controversy than solved problems, even introducing new challenges and issues to overcome - resolution of this is pending and delay merely makes overcoming economic downturn a negative in attracting businesses to fill the empty shop units,” he said.

“Monmouth’s’ evolving future prosperity is, I think, worryingly uncertain, he added.