A small business owner based in Bristol says she has been left “devastated” after a van holding thousands of pounds worth of stock was broken into. Ellie Green, the owner of the clothing company Green Inc Co, claims that the theft occurred in broad daylight on Easter Monday from outside their studio on an industrial estate on Freestone Road.
Ms Green started Green Inc Co in 2020 with her partner as a way to brighten up the gloomy days of the pandemic. She now sells her handmade pieces, many of which are in her distinctive tie-dye style, on Etsy and at festivals and markets across the country.
After working at markets over the Easter weekend, Ms Green told Bristol Live that she and her team took the Bank Holiday Monday off, leaving several thousand pounds worth of stock in a padlocked van near their studio.
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Upon return on Tuesday, Ms Green says noticed the padlock was missing. She said: “The inside had just been completely ravaged. All of our stock had been taken.
“It was our stock to trade for the next few weeks. We're supposed to be doing a festival at the end of the month. And we hand dye and print loads of our things, so obviously, that’s hundreds of hours that we've put into making all that stuff.”
Ms Green estimates the total stock stolen was worth between £4,000 and £5,000. As a result, she says any takings in the coming months will need to be used to remake the lost items in time for the lucrative summer festival season.
She said: “I'm going to have to put in 18-hour days to remake everything in time. Because we've been working over the winter to try and make this stuff, it's just pretty devastating.
“I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. I was really sad last week. And now we have to plod on and get more stuff made; no time to be sad.
“Also, it's been overwhelmingly heartwarming how involved everybody has gotten in terms of sharing our posts (on social media). Just the concern when I was trading at the market with the little bits I managed to scrape together. The whole market community spirit has been unbelievable and really lovely.”
Ms Green says that the theft has been reported to the police, and says she has also obtained CCTV footage that captured the culprits on camera shortly after 11am on April 10. She said: “We've got some CCTV clips from the next-door business.
"It's two cars; one pulls up behind our van, and they’re not messing about with anything. There was too much stuff not to have a vehicle, which they seemed to have known. So I don't know, they've been very lucky if they had just stumbled across it.”
Although Ms Green hadn’t had a chance to sew labels into all the stolen stock, she is hopeful that their distinctive design may lead to it being identified should the thieves attempt to sell it.
She said: “If somebody spots our stuff, I would like to get the stuff recovered if we can. But I'd like for them not to be able to do it to other people, as well. Because if they're going to do it to me, then they're definitely going to be scumbags that do it to other small businesses and continuously ruin people's lives. Which is really not good.”
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