Nibbles, Needles and Hooks
5 November 2025
Sector: Retail
Location: North East Derbyshire
Nibbles, Needles and Hooks is a wool and coffee shop based in Lower Pilsley, North East Derbyshire. It was established in February 2023 and is owned by former teacher Liz Grec and partner, Simon Edwards, who runs the coffee shop.
In essence the business is a welcoming space where people can sit, drink coffee, make and talk. It has helped grow and nurture friendships across various ages, backgrounds and geographies. Liz is proud to provide their small village with a focal point, open five days a week, that offers a place for them to visit and build connections.
Nibbles, Needles and Hooks also sells its goods online from a range of local, national and international makers, supporting other small businesses as much as possible.
Challenges faced
The small size of the building has meant the business cannot reach a large instore audience, so Liz has been looking at the online store as a way of increasing sales. However, the online store struggles to compete with the larger businesses who have very large online and print advertising budgets. The current website was found to have limited SEO features which was further limiting online reach.
Solution – Support Given
Working on a 1-to-1 basis with East Midlands Chamber’s Business Adviser, David Smith, Liz was quickly able to establish the direction of support needed to grow the business. The business is being supported through the Accelerator project.
Liz knew the website was holding her back from more online sales. After completing an online Digital Marketing course, she felt the current site’s SEO needed improvement. However, through conversations with a consultant, signposted by David, the limitations of the current site were highlighted including the website platform being used.
The business was able to apply for a £2,000 Growth Voucher, through Accelerator, which was used for specialist website consultancy support from Rob Gregory of Magnifica. Rob has helped Liz to build a new website which will address all the shortcomings for the old site, including increased SEO capabilities.
Liz comments: “The knowledge I have gained regarding building my own ecommerce website will enable me to continue to work at increasing SEO and making every individual product more visible.”
The task of transferring 800 individually listed products from the existing site is huge and this is something Liz will be working on in coming months.
Impact – The Difference it’s Made
A better website will mean higher rankings on Google searches bringing better visibility among the target audience and increased online sales. A longer-term goal is to link the website to the business’ POS system and streamline the inventory across the two. This will save man hours in the processing of stock items.
Liz commented that the hours saved through the consultancy support from Rob Gregory, is “immeasurable”. The old website was built over 2 ½ years ago by Simon via GoDaddy, and stock listed was half what it is now. Liz added that Rob’s advice on navigating the new platform (WordPress and WooCommerce) has saved hours and hours of trial and error. Rob was able to guide Liz on a number of things including how to create templates, the most efficient way to organise stock items, and what information was needed for each listing, to make it most visible to search engines, like Google.
“I am incredibly happy with the support I’ve received from the Chamber and for the Growth Voucher. It has enabled me to receive support and guidance that otherwise would have been far beyond my current means.
While the outcome is still in progress I have more than enough knowledge to make this happen myself now.”
- Liz Grec, Owner
