Nineteen-year-old Ellie now runs her own two market stalls – ‘The Vegetable Patch’ and ‘Between the Leaves’ and is very much enjoying serving her loyal customers.
Ellie personally painted and decorated her ‘Between the Leaves’ Parlour which offers high quality houseplants, soil and decorative plants.
Nearby is Ellie’s second stall selling local fruit and vegetables, outdoor plants, bug and bird houses and garden gifts.
Ellie attended Tavistock College and Plymouth City College, and decided at a very young age that she wanted to start her own enterprise.
At the age of 17 years, she started working at the Tavistock Pannier Market for other traders and loved it so much, that when an opportunity arose within the market to set up her own stalls, she decided against going to university and jumped at the opportunity to realise her dreams.
Ellie said: ‘I love meeting people, and running my business within the Tavistock Pannier Market which gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to serve them with high quality produce.
‘I also enjoy meeting fellow traders too, who have all been very kind and encouraging in every way.’
Ellie said it was like a big family in the market and a great grounding for someone who wanted to start their own business before perhaps moving onto running a unit or a shop premises.
Her love of houseplants and her extensive knowledge means that she happy to give advice and even takes customers’ houseplants home to repot if necessary.
‘People love their plants as I do,’ she said. ‘My house is full of them, it is like a jungle. As much as I love people buying my plants I really enjoying talking about them and the problems people might be having.
‘Customers often say they cannot get houseplants to grow but it is not because of anything they are doing wrong it is often that the place where they are growing is not suitable or the temperature.
‘Houseplants have always been my hobby and my mum is a gardener so it probably started from that. It is so exciting when you see a new leaf appear.
‘I took “The Vegetable Patch” over from my sister Shannon and as the stalls are close to one another I can run both quite easily.
‘It’s the best decision I have ever made to start up a business.’
Ellie said she very much appreciated the help and support given to her by the management and staff at the market which had been ‘overwhelming and second to none.’
Market reeve, Duane Carruthers added: ‘The Tavistock Pannier Market is a unique and historic market which hosts an extensive variety of traders selling a distinctive range of products and produce for their discerning customers and Ellie is our youngest trader.
‘The market family have welcomed Ellie with open arms, and wish her well in her new enterprise.
‘Ellie is the youngest within the Tavistock Pannier Market community to start her own business, and she has great potential within the market environment to expand in the future.’