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Catch up on the latest Made in Kent episode wit Alia Pritchard
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00:16Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV where we explore the world of businesses and
00:21creators throughout the county. I'm Alia Pritchard and this week we're taking a look into the world
00:26of startups and new businesses here in Kent. First up, a Michelin-starred chef from Broadstairs
00:31opened his own vegan restaurant just eight months ago and despite what he claims was a rocky
00:36beginning before the doors even opened, he says Aster is now growing in its popularity.
00:41Our reporter Joel Fletcher went down to speak with him about his new journey from chef to owner.
00:46Let's take a look. Aster is a plant-based vegan restaurant based in the heart of Broadstairs.
00:52Michelin-star chef and owner Luke Crittenden opened the vegan restaurant in October 2025.
00:59Luke gained the restaurant from his brother Ben where it used to be Stark,
01:03another Michelin-starred restaurant. The venue is an intimate one serving only eight tables
01:08that can all watch Luke's work up close. Me and my brother did this place, my brother owns the lease
01:13so he had a restaurant here up until about a couple of years ago. We thought it was going to
01:17be pretty
01:18easy. Plumbing is going to be all right, we thought the electric is going to be fine. We ended up
01:22having
01:23to redo everything ourselves like even the kitchen had to be ripped out when we thought it was going
01:27to be okay so it took a long time. Since I've been open though I think it's actually been quite
01:31easy.
01:31I thought it was going to be because obviously I've run the place by myself so I thought AR is
01:36going to be
01:36quite anxious to serve customers because I am very much a chef but it turns out I really like talking
01:41to people.
01:41But what sets Aster apart from other restaurants in the area?
01:44A lot of vegan places have been closing. I know a lot of restaurants in general have been closing
01:48but it's been made a big thing of that vegan places have been closing. I do find a lot of
01:52vegan places are the same thing like they have cafes or their bakeries or they do like you know the
01:57Buddha bowls and especially in the local area like the fan area I would say even in Kent there's no
02:02one
02:02that does food that I do. I wanted to find out what inspired Luke to start experimenting with wild foods
02:08and unique flavours. I love the animals so this is Sparky my restaurant manager and I lived up in
02:15Medway so I used to go around Cobham woods and kind of basically look around trying to look at different
02:21wild foods that I could eat. I've worked with some wild foods before as well the more common stuff like
02:27wild garlic wild fennel but then I was then trying to look for more interesting stuff and obviously being
02:32vegan I've found a lot of vegan food quite boring to be further I'm going to be honest um I
02:37think
02:37the wild food element brings a lot more interesting flavours. So what does the future of Aster look like?
02:44I'm hoping to be here for a few years yeah three four five not thinking too far ahead but um
02:49I kind of
02:50want to push myself more creatively with the dishes I have but winning awards and stuff is not really on
02:56my mind I just want to stay happy with what I'm doing and I think that translates into the customer
03:02experience a bit as well because I'm very talkative person when you come here obviously I work on my own
03:07so I have to serve everyone the customers love it they love that I'm chatty and obviously Sparky's here
03:12he cuddles the customers on a few here all the time so it's quite a nice relaxed experience I think
03:16if
03:17I'm happy cooking I'm going to carry on cooking and my food shows that I'm happy as soon as I
03:21if I start ever not wanting to cook I'm just going to give up but hopefully that won't happen too
03:26soon.
03:26Joel Fletcher for KMTV in Broadstairs
03:32Cafes are a staple in almost every town and the recent surge in match of popularity has created draws of
03:37new customers for businesses one of those businesses is Chia in Canterbury serving both
03:42new and traditional matcha and coffee beverages our reporter Lottie Mason went down to find out more
03:48spring has finally sprung here in Kent and what better than a cold beverage in the sun so that's
03:53why I've come to Canterbury to scope out one of the newest businesses that can offer just that
03:58I've started to plan this Oakland since 2018 so it's been a long time since then just getting
04:05experience work and saving up just to open this place so it's been a learning curve we've been open
04:11since uh last August so it's almost coming up to a year like of the shop being open the shop
04:17specializes in matcha coffees as well since we're a specializing coffee place so we put a lot of effort
04:24into making the matcha the traditional way so let's find out the inspiration behind Chia so I wanted to
04:30create a space where I would go I would want to go so I just try to create the face
04:36to be inclusive for
04:38everyone for the young working professional students that want to just come and meet new people make
04:43friends that's why we do host events like this and work with societies so we've been doing mattress for a
04:50long time because we've been doing market stores catering events so we have a little expertise in that
04:55show I think we stand out there so because we just don't hop into the trend if that makes sense
05:01the smaller the businesses the more you can actually put into it in a single place for it to
05:07become a part of the city compared to when for example it's a franchise which is branches out
05:13all around the country it's hard to actually feel that sense that it belongs to the city over the past
05:21year of being open they've built a community not just a cafe I think I like coming here because of
05:26the the people who actually come here themselves even I even come here to like hang out with the
05:31co-workers who actually work here they're beyond customer service they're like they're so nice
05:36like honestly you can just they come in they welcome you with open arms they introduce you to
05:41like maybe new drinks because I didn't even like matching before never tried it I came here
05:45they got me on it and I'm just hooked on it Lottie Mason for KMTV in Canterbury
05:51now why not every setup will have a success story one local one is Sumo Donuts who have just opened
05:57their fifth location within the county in Maidstone covering the county across Canterbury,
06:02Folkestone, Ashford and Tunbridge Wells since opening first in 2022 our reporter Chloe Smith spoke
06:08with co-owner Mike Molnar to hear about their journey as an independent business filling a niche in Kent
06:13let's take a look the journey from one shop to multiple isn't an easy one but filled with hard
06:19work and stagnation I talked to Mike about the importance of finding a unique identity when in
06:24such fierce competition very difficult to be honest I mean we we opened in I think it was April 2022
06:32in Canterbury and we stayed there without doing anything else for I think it was a good two two and
06:37a half years and then we just decided there was kind of a ceiling with Canterbury and we needed to
06:41basically get more shops to basically reach more customers I mean what we wanted to do is create
06:47an experience because a lot of donut companies out there they just rely on stalls or pop-ups or
06:53online orders and stuff and what we wanted to do was create a an inviting experience for a customer so
06:59to come in have a have a lovely coffee and a donut for instance so all the shops are really
07:04nicely decked
07:05out very nice atmospheres in there Mike owns the company with his wife Sue the pair of them took a
07:11tremendous
07:11gamble four years ago when starting in Canterbury in 2022 finding success in business seems like the
07:17idyllic dream but how does it interact with family life it's very difficult I mean I think if you ask
07:24any sort of small business owner how how challenging it is at the moment I think they'll say it's very
07:28challenging I mean obviously you know me and Sue do the the bulk of the work ourselves and we have
07:33to manage
07:34you know our young son family life as well as running a challenging business so it is it is difficult
07:40I also asked Mike if there was a gap in the market they tried to fill in the county and
07:45the importance
07:45of catering to a niche audience as a new independent business yeah Kent's been good for us I mean there
07:51seems to be an appetite for donuts in Kent we relocated from Bedfordshire with the hope of opening a donut
07:58shop
07:58somewhere in Kent and we just kind of stumbled upon Canterbury because it was a bustling town
08:05there wasn't anything like that and we just saw an opportunity there thing that we've tried to do
08:10is just focus on the donuts and on the coffee you know we don't want to do anything more than
08:17that
08:17I mean we offer a couple of other things like Cinnabons and brownies and stuff like that but
08:21predominantly it's donuts and coffee and I think one mistake that some businesses tend to make is they
08:27try to be all things to all people and I think you need to stay in your lane be niche
08:32and and be a
08:33specialist in whatever it is you're looking to do Chloe Smith for KMTV and finally let's take a moment
08:40to delve into the figures surrounding new businesses here in Kent joining me this week to bring us the
08:45deep dive is Ethan Materine so Ethan how many businesses have been established throughout the
08:57most recent years well according to joint reports done between like NatWest Group and Bowhurst data
09:03uh like 5 million active businesses more than 5 million active businesses were active in 2024 the report
09:17also continues to state that um 846 000 companies were started in 2024 and while this figure is a bit
09:27lower than
09:28that from 2023 by a factor of nearly four percent it's significantly higher than yet three years prior
09:38to 2023 and within what you mentioned the number of companies started was higher than years prior to
09:452023 why do you think that is well according to a poll from Archer Media the accounts Archer Media accounts
09:55completed in 2024 where people were shown a statement saying I would like to start my own business in the
10:01future in the future over a third of participants chose to agree to an extent so I think the rise
10:08in the
10:09number of new businesses in 2023 mostly shows that more and more people are willing to take the leap
10:16and into starting a new venture and becoming their own boss like Chia like Asta and like Sumo Donuts
10:24earlier in the program and what are some of the risks of starting a business some of the risks that
10:30we've seen is that like nearly eight percent from coming from a report from UK money in January 2025
10:39see nearly eight percent of them fail within their first year and 71 fail with new but 71 of new
10:49businesses fail within their first three years according to the report one of the biggest reasons
10:54as to why this might be is that the markets that the businesses are heading into are too oversaturated
11:01too competitive so it just gets overloaded and crowded additionally many of these startups lack
11:07financing and are simply running out of money and finally the report also mentioned
11:13the the the the the report also mentioned that many of the businesses had owners who lacked the
11:23financial knowledge to run a company and didn't seek help with the experience thus leading to their
11:28eventual failure thank you so much Ethan
11:36you've been watching Made in Kent live on KMTV that's all we have time for tonight goodbye and we'll see
11:41you next week
11:49you
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