Indie Focus

Hive Of

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A giraffe named Deborah blasts out of an exterior wall, high above a pair of Instagram-ready angel wings.

There is no missing The Bean Hive, a wonderfully quirky shop that has been injecting colour and personality into Kettering’s retail scene for the past three years.

Hot on the heels of its wins in The Greats 2021, Muddy Stilettos and Kettering Business awards programmes (as well as reaching the finals of The Retas 2021), PG caught up with the shop’s equally colourful owner Davina ‘Queen Bean’ Parkhouse.

It’s been quite a year for Davina Parkhouse (who prefers to be known as Bean). Not only did The Bean Hive - founded in 2018 by a group of friends and traders - win the Best Newcomer - South and Wales category in The Greats gift awards in September, the store also won the Best Gift Shop category in the Northamptonshire Muddy Stilettos Awards, as well as the Best Gift Shop category in the local Kettering Business Awards. And the shop was also shortlisted as a finalist at The Retas 2021 greeting card retailer awards, all of which shouts out that the shop has got its finger on the pulse of retail.

From the moment you walk in, it’s clear that this is no ordinary shop. “It’s a bit crazy!” admits Bean of her three storey retailing emporium. On the store’s first two levels - in addition to Bean’s ‘something different’ curated selection of greeting cards, gifts, home, interiors, food, beauty sections - the remaining space is rented out to 12 handpicked traders-cum-staff-cum friends, selling everything from crystals and wall art to bags, jewellery and vinyl, as well as (additional) greeting cards from two local illustrators, plus much, much more besides.

There’s also the Sweary Mary’s ‘department’ on the upper floor for those shoppers looking for novelty ‘rude’ cards and gifts.

Greeting cards are sold throughout the store from a myriad of publishers, with Rifle Paper, East End Prints, Eleanor Bowmar, Petra Boase being among the favourite nonhumour brands, while Bold & Bright, Objectables and Quite Good Cards are among those tickling the funny bones of Bean Hive’s customers.

Above: Deborah The Zebra was specially created to celebrate the shop’s third anniversary. Left: Davina Parkhouse aka Bean with the angel wings which are painted on the outside of the shop. Inset: The Bean Hive in Kettering.

“We’re very liberal with the products we sell, and in the run-up to Christmas, all items sell out,” reveals Bean, who, in order to avoid stock shortages and not disappoint customers in December, placed her orders early across the board to ensure all three floors were crammed with goodies.

Looking back over the last three years since she bought the shop. Bean sums up that “with a lot of blood sweat and tears we have managed to turn a derelict space into a colourful vibrant mini department store.”

Bean is especially proud of Randalls American sweet shop, a trader who has a ‘department’ inside The Bean Hive, which specialises in American candy brands. “It’s owned by a young entrepreneur from Market Harborough who has done so well that he has become a local ‘celebrity’,” she

enthuses. “The town’s children come in here to buy their sweets, making the shop a community hub.”

Locals clearly love The Bean Hive as much as Bean does, so much so that, delighted with its ambience, two local women, Ayesha and Reannah, recently got engaged there! “When Reannah asked to propose to Ayesha in our shop we couldn’t have been more excited!” Bean exclaims. “It was wonderful to be part of their special moment.”

Since the lockdowns, Bean explains that the shop has improved. “Everything is better because we had time to do things that normally we wouldn’t have time to do. It’s therefore been like starting out again, but with a much improved shop, better stock, a website and fabulous new artwork which was funded by the government’s re-start grant. Our reward has been that footfall and sales have been amazing. We’re not just surviving, but thriving thanks to our loyal customers of all ages.”

So how did Bean, a former chartered surveyor, (“I was sensible and boring then, now I’m rather rebellious!”) get into gift retail? “I accidentally fell into it, initially selling antiques and vintage paraphernalia at fairs following a massive inheritance of stuff from my mother, a collector,” she explains. “Subsequently, I began selling a few cards and gifts - I love greeting cards and always have - and realised that this was the retail sector I wanted to be in. I come from a family of shopkeepers and love beautiful things, as I was surrounded with them growing up. Additionally, my mum was a shopper, as was my grandma, so I’m unashamedly a shopaholic,” she admits.

Bean freely admits that her “favourite activity is sourcing new stock for the shop - and chatting to our lovely customers of course! In lockdown, if I’m being honest, I missed them, and my staff/traders, who I see every day, more than my friends!”

With sourcing in mind, Bean is really looking forward to the trade shows in 2022, far preferring to see the products and the people behind them in the flesh. A big fan of PG Live, Bean recalls she was “even more excited than usual” at the July show. “It really was a great show. It was so wonderful to see people and products in reality after over a year of online purchasing. We ordered from loads of our existing suppliers as well as from quite a few new ones. PG Live most certainly did not disappoint!”

Prior to lockdown, Bean sourced from Europe as well as the UK, but when the lockdowns impacted, as well as the current stock issues, she has used B2B sites such as Faire, Abound, Creo8ate and Tredo, to find new - and sustainable - brands, along with products from local, smaller suppliers. “Like everyone else, we have to keep on adapting, but our criteria is always to choose products that we like ourselves,” says Bean.

So, what does she see as the secret of The Bean Hive’s success? “A visit to The Bean Hive is always fun, and I love having an unusual shop that everyone talks about. I’ve variously been described as ‘the UK’s most enthusiastic retailer’, as well as ‘someone whose brain has too many tabs open at the same time!’ I can’t switch off. I’m constantly in work mode, thinking about every single detail, and one of the loveliest comments I’ve received is that the shop is ‘out of London’s London’.” Going into 2022, what ambitions does she have for The Bean Hive over the next six to 12 months? “To have a print catalogue that goes out in the post,” states Bean. “I want to do it just once, and to do it professionally, with the photo shoot taking place in my house which I’ve recently remodelled. I’ve got the backdrops ready, so that’s the dream. Meanwhile, I count myself very, very lucky to have such a crazy, fun business and to have such enormous fun running it. Life is short, so why be boring? And best of all, I get to shop for a living! I feel like I was always meant to do this,” concludes Bean with a smile.

The Bean Hive By The Sea

In August 2020, Bean opened a second shop, The Bean Hive By The Sea in Falmouth, which is run by her daughter Emelye, who recently completed a masters in history from Exeter University. (The family also have a holiday home in Cornwall). “She’s very much like me, a strong, rebellious colourful, character, whose favourite colour is pink. And like me, and my sister who has a gift shop, The Mackerel Makery in Penzance, and my mum, who owned estate agents, she’s a third generation natural shopkeeper,” beams Bean. “Sales in Falmouth were off the scale last summer, with the shop a magnet for tourists, students and locals.” However, other than being painted in the same millennial pink and including a Sweary Mary’s section (“a huge hit with students”), the retail concept is very different from the Kettering shop. “Emelye is well known in Falmouth for wearing unusual, colourful dresses which she then re-sells,” explains Bean. “People love them and come into the shop to buy them. Plus, she sells some of my old vintage stock. Emelye’s favourite colour has always been pink - which has inspired the colour theme for The Bean Hive - in fact, so much so that we own a bright pink car too!”

Above: Delighted smiles from Davina Parkhouse (right) and her daughter Emelye, owners of The Bean Hive, Kettering, and The Bean Hive By The Sea, Falmouth, winners of The Greats Best Newcomer - South & Wales category.

Left: Just part of the greeting cards selection. Below:Some gift products in the Sweary Mary’s area.