Rosie Greenaway checks in with Wild Honey’s Matt Sage, co-owner of three Oxford-based stores, about championing local producers and offering a heart-led alternative to ‘soulless retail’.

For the past decade Matt Sage and Jessica Howie have been creating soulful retail offerings in three quiet corners of Oxford, eschewing the hubbub of the High Street in favour of ‘heart-of-the-village backstreet locations’ where shoppers who don’t identify with the ‘mainstream machine’ can seek solace in sustainable products and uncompromising ethics. “Commercially it’s a stupid thing to do but spiritually it’s much more rewarding. It creates a meaningful heart in the community and that’s much more aligned with our ethos,” Sage notes, explaining that for the pair — partners in both life and work — creating something which represented the antithesis of ‘soulless retail’ was more important than financial gain.

Keeping the pound circulating locally is fundamentally important to Sage, not just from a commercial standpoint but for human connection. “When you spend a fiver at Wild Honey I can employ the window cleaner, he can employ the plumber; it stays in the village. This is what’s been missing from our culture. It makes us feel connected to each other. People are investing in that. I’m a staunch believer in that world. We’re all living under capitalism — it’s very divisive and it’s left us feeling quite isolated and lonely. We really saw it in COVID. People were coming in just to have a chat. That’s beautiful and really important. They want to feel part of something. We’re not just shopkeepers, it’s deeper. People aren’t only coming in to buy produce, even though we’ve curated what we think is a really great selection of wonderful things — they’re coming in because it’s a nice experience.”

“If you remain curatorial, curious and creative you’ll be fine..”

— Matt Sage, Wild Honey

Careful not just about which SKUs make it onto their expertly curated shelves — the emphasis being on supporting local makers of fresh produce, eggs, apple juice, bread, skincare, candles and soaps — Sage and Howie are also conscious of employing the right people. Over the years, staff retention has been high, with many enjoying an element of freedom in their roles: “We’ve got great people [who] tend to stay with us. If they leave, often they return. We give them our blessing, they go off on their travels and they come back. That’s a great accolade. It’s a testament to the experience that people have working for us. For Jess and I, that’s really important. We’re trying to create a healthy ecosystem; if you can get that right, everything else follows. Our team is everything to us; they enable the whole thing to work.”

And teamwork will be crucial if Sage and Howie are to fulfil their ambition of expanding beyond Oxford. “We’re not done with opening more shops, we’re just taking our time as we’ve taken our time with these three. It’s been a very organic process and it’s really important to us to keep it at a very soulful, human-scale level.” Plans for a South West site are in the ‘dreaming up stages’ and the pair are mindful of monitoring cash flow — especially as they continue to weather ‘difficult retail storms’ — but Sage feels confident there’s ample public demand. “There’s a huge amount of goodwill for ethical business. What we’re offering remains a very strong attraction for customers and they’re willing to pay a bit more because they want a world with a Wild Honey in it.”

What’s more, he says, the multiples have noticed. “One of the interesting things for me over the last 11 years has been watching how the major retailers are watching us. We’re pioneers, we really are cutting through the water first, stocking things that you can’t get anywhere else and suddenly there they are in Marks & Spencer or Waitrose. It was a bit worrying at first but it’s actually a good sign. It means the good stuff is going mainstream. The supermarkets are watching us as we mine the next tin of gold. Luckily, there are lots of very talented, creative people making beautiful things and they’re looking for outlets; small, independent stores are their first port of call. The supermarkets could take you down, but if you remain curatorial, curious and creative you’ll be fine.”