Everyone is finding it tough at the moment and wants life to get back to normal.

We will be profiling local independent businesses regularly over the coming weeks in a feature called UP CLOSE IN MALDON DISTRICT to help showcase our town centre and village traders. By spending locally, you help support local jobs - and so build our communities back stronger.

In the days to come, we will be taking a closer look at 'refill' or 'eco' shopping in the district and talking to some local businesses. In the first of these articles, two lockdown entrepreneurs tell us more about their new business, The Refill Den.

New local businesswomen Ellie Giles and Charlotte Kirby are what is often now termed 'lockdown entrepreneurs' – and they have created a business start-up which not only hopes to help save the planet by bringing eco-friendly shopping to people who may not have tried it before, but is doing its bit to tackle social isolation in villages, too.

In Maldon district, The Refill Den is already making an impact in Tollesbury where every Tuesday between 9am and 11am the mobile 'pod' brings the art of eco-shopping and refilling to the village outside The King's Head in the High Street.

At the moment, Ellie and Charlotte also take the Refill Den on different days of the week to other Essex villages, including Copford, Coggeshall, Fordham, West Bergholt, and Bures Green, as well as Colchester – and they're receiving a lot of requests to take the Refill Den to new places, too.

So with an eye to the future - and having launched as recently as February – they are already setting their sights on expanding to a second pod that would allow them to take their business to more villages and towns.

"We really want to be able to go further afield in the area," Charlotte explains, "and we aim to be the beginner's guide to refilling for a lot of people.

"People who haven't refilled before can sometimes worry about what they need to bring and what they need to ask for, but they don't need to. We're here to help.

"You don't have to be doing everything perfectly – it's about just trying to do a little bit."

However, that little bit is already making a difference.

"We have people telling us all the time how much less plastic they're using now they are visiting us," Ellie says, "and every week we have people come and chat to us as they get to know us."

That important part of reaching out to new and often more remote Essex communities has been a strong feature of The Refill Den from the very start.

Charlotte, 31, and Ellie, 22, were both graphic designers who worked together and suddenly both found themselves furloughed. Stuck at home in Levenheath, Charlotte found it difficult to carry on with the eco-friendly way of shopping she had already developed.

"I started a journey a few years back where I changed one product or element in my life per month to a more sustainable, eco alternative. And eventually it just becomes a natural progression to start shopping at refill shops, local greengrocers and at health food shops.

"So when the pandemic happened and I found myself stuck at home I thought, 'let's take it on the road'," Charlotte says, "and take it to people who might not have experienced refilling before, too."

Unable to see each other in person in the months leading up to the launch of the pod due to the lockdown, Ellie and Charlotte put their plans in place remotely.

"The most complicated part of it all was setting it up," says Ellie, "so it was really strange doing so much of it by phone, but we got there.

"Being only 22, I know that I still have a lot to learn about life in general, let alone running a business! Still living at home with my parents meant that I was in the perfect position to start a company - I had the storage and office space and not many outgoings. I'm very lucky to have such a supportive family as they've really helped the Refill Den become a reality - thanks mum and dad!"

Proudly self-funded, the Refill Den's success so far means it now stocks around 160 products, with a range including just about any cupboard staple you could think of from beans, pulses and seeds, to baking products, tea and coffee, dried fruit, health and beauty, herbs and spices, home essentials, liquids, nuts, pasta and grains and more. And the range keeps on growing, too.

With the future firmly in mind – not just the future of the new business, but that of the planet and the communities The Refill Den serves, too – this pair of lockdown entrepreneurs have emerged from the pandemic to show that there is every reason to hope for a brighter future ahead.

To find out more about The Refill Den or to place an order you can find the website at the link here or the Facebook page using the link here.

The Keep it Local campaign is being launched through Maldon District Council's Sense of Place initiative, with funding from the Magnox Decommissioning Fund.