Sales boom for some stallholders at Eisteddfod

Daloni Owen, who owns Cwt Tatws, says that every night she went home to restock her products

Some stallholders are reporting booming sales at this year's National Eisteddfod despite the cost of living rising.

With a stall in Boduan, Gwynedd, costing thousands of pounds to rent, some small businesses said they have been happy with the outcome.

One stallholder said she has had to restock her products every night.

However, not all stallholders said they had enjoyed such a good week.

Daloni Owen, from Tudweiliog on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, owns Cwt Tatws (Potato Hut) and is a regular at the Eisteddfod.

She started her business 14 years ago selling coffee, clothes, shoes and interiors. and began selling her products from a 500-year-old potato shed at her family farm.

The former S4C journalist started without any business plan or experience and when it business began becoming successful, she built a shed close to the original one.

Ms Owen said: "I have five children and I wanted to be home more with them and spend more time in my area.

"It's been very busy and people are very supportive and positive. I've enjoyed every minute.

"I am very lucky that I have sold out of quite a few of my ranges, I've gone home in the nights to restock."

"My sales have been great and every day is getting busier," says Eisteddfod debutant Cleddon Getten, who owns Pimentos

Eisteddfod first-timer Cleddon Getten, 44 owns Pimentos, a carribean food business, said: "My sales have been great and every day is getting busier".

Originally from Jamaica, he went to London for a holiday when he was 19, and decided to move there permanently after loving the city.

At the age of 10 he started cooking as his mother was always out working, he explained.

After shying away from his hobby in his teens, he decided to study welding at school. He fell back in love with cooking after helping a friend out by catering for her baby shower.

At 26 he bought a restaurant in Birmingham and that's where his catering business started.

After the Covid pandemic, he took his business outdoors and he started attending food festivals.

Having recently done the Cardiff food festival and the Eisteddfod yr Urdd in May, he said he finds "much love in Wales" and "would love to learn to speak the language".

Mr Getten added: "I would like a restaurant here for my Jamaican Welsh customers. I also hope to come to the National Eisteddfod next year."

Luis Caceres, 36 and Ayoen Caceres, 14 from Ecuador, run Sisarikg crafts

Sisarikg Crafts is another business hoping to return next year.

Luis Caceres, 36 from Ecuador, runs the business with his daughter and grandmother from Nottingham.

Their family in Ecuador make the items and they ship them over ready to sell.

His daughter, Ayoen, 14, said: "Business has been good. Saturday wasn't great due to the weather. We have had better sales this year than last year, so we are happy."

"I think Welsh people like my items because they like wearing Welsh," says Anwen Jenkins, who owns Anibendod

Anwen Jenkins, 28, from Aberystwyth owns Anibendod, a Welsh language clothing business, which began after five years ago, she started practising embroidery in her bedroom using wool from her farm's sheep.

She was at last year's Eisteddfod in Tregaron and has also attended the Royal Welsh Show.

She said: "Business has been very good this year. I'm very happy.

"I think Welsh people like my items because they like wearing Welsh items, to feel proud of where they are from."

Rhian Parry, 44 started her small business six months ago and was given a stall for free by Cyngor Gwynedd Council

But the picture is not so rosy for everyone.

Rhian Parry, 44, from Nefyn, Gwynedd, who owns Tê Parti, selling Welsh T-shirts, mugs, bags and jewellery, said: "I started printing the T-shirts because my husband's English and he would always laugh at the name of Welsh things.

"It all started with the buwch goch gota which is what we call ladybirds, and literally translated it is little red cow.

"He would just laugh and laugh about it. So, yeah my products are basically literal translations of all the quirky Welsh words and phases."

Ms Parry decided to turn her hobby into a business six months ago.

Ms Parry's sausage dogs have been busy helping attract customers to her stall

She applied through the local council Cyngor Gwynedd's scheme to rent a stall. The council granted six wooden stalls to encourage new small businesses to sell at the Eisteddfod.

Ms Parry said: "We were very lucky to get one of the stalls.

"I wouldn't have been able to cover the £1,600 fee myself at all. I haven't even made that in the four days I have been here."

She had been at the festival since Saturday and left on Wednesday for the next six stallholders.

She said sales had not been great and felt the impact of the cost of living crisis was "very evident".

"People say they will stop on the way home and get something from my stall but they never do."

She hopes next year the Eisteddfod will provide similar opportunities for small businesses like she has had in Boduan.