The Filling Station is a multi award winning craft beer taproom and bottle shop set in the heart of St Ives, Cambridgeshire. Matt and his team settled in a 40ft converted shipping container and offer over 200 different craft beers sourced from a wide range of UK Breweries.
As we celebrate International Beer Day on August 2nd, learn more about this innovative business which prides itself on being 100% locally owned.
Tell us about The Filling Station and why you started?
I opened the Filling Station in May 2021. I love craft beers, which are incredibly tasty, but they only appeared in bottle shops and were not easy to find in pubs.
I knew that draught beers tasted better than canned or bottled beers, but no one was really giving consumers access to takeaway draught craft beers.
I’d seen Growler stations in the US and knew how great the concept was. I’d also worked with shipping container businesses in my previous role at Carlsberg, so knew how versatile they were as retail spaces.
I then just put all of those great concepts together and created the Filling Station so people can enjoy draught craft beers at home
The Filling Station is a locally owned business, can you tell us more?
This was important to me! I wanted to champion independent breweries in the UK and give them a platform on which to showcase their great beers to a wider consumer base.
I wanted The Filling Station to mirror these ambitions and be 100% independent and not have any ties to any suppliers or wider chains.
What do you love most about running your business?
I love sharing my passion for great independent craft beers with new people. It’s great to watch them go on that journey of discovery into the world of Beer just like I did many years ago.
I really enjoy the social side of my business and having passionate conversations with my customers in my shop about their lives and hearing how they enjoy the different products that I sell.
I love the independence and creative freedom that my job gives me, and seeing my ideas come to life and deliver profitable results is massively rewarding.
How has Tide helped you grow your business?
Tide has made running the financial side of my business very simple and gave me the time to concentrate on marketing my business and creating great customer experiences.
I can run all my banking from my phone, pay invoices and move money quickly, all of this on the go.
I also own a small craft beer Micro Pub and I use Tide for that Limited Company as well. Having both accounts in one place on the app is incredibly useful and allows me to manage both businesses’ finances effortlessly.
I need a service behind my business that makes banking simple (like it should be) and that can respond quickly to any queries or issues that I may have, both of these things Tide does for me and it makes my business run smoothly.
Tell us more about the sustainability aspect of your business
We offer a refillable bottle system. The beer filling machines that we have at the shop allow me to pressure fill glass and plastic containers with different beers each time my customers come back to my shop.
The customer rinses their refillable bottle out at home and then they come into the shop and the machines flush the bottles with Co2 and then fill them with fresh cold beer for my customers to take away.
This is a greener and more enjoyable way of buying great draught beers to drink at home. Once the beer is sealed in the bottle it stays fresh for 30 days if unopened. Without these machines I would not be able to offer such a premium experience for my customers and my business would not have such a great USP.
How are you celebrating International Beer Day?
For International Beer Day, we’re offering £3.00 off all Growler Refills throughout the day. This Friday, any customers that bring their bottles in to be refilled from our tap wall of 10 beers can benefit!
What advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs?
Just take action and don’t fear failure.
You may have this idea that you are working on and will be spending lots of time planning, but for me there is nothing better than taking action. Just take that first step.
Do one thing and then the other stages will just start falling into place.
