06.05.21

By Defeye Team

Unhampered is the new directory of Independent businesses based in Chesterfield — The site is now live, check it out by clicking here. Unhampered has been launched following a collaborative effort between S40 and S41 Local magazines and us, Defeye Creative. After many of the town’s local businesses begin their recovery following the enormous challenges of the pandemic, we thought that we would lend a helping hand. Unhampered is a directory of Chesterfield’s fabulous independent businesses; the shops, restaurants, food suppliers and so much more that we love. Our local businesses have been hit hard over the last year, but have risen to the enormous challenge, created an online presence in record time and have changed their offering to provide delivery, takeaway or click and collect services. S40 and S41 Local work closely with a lot of these businesses and we have been involved with providing our services to a number of businesses over the years and we were keen to look at how we could support them even more and give something back to the local economy — The Unhampered directory puts Chesterfield's high street independents all in one place and seems to be the first step to providing that support.

A PlatformFor Exploration.

Our very own strategic and Unhampered expert, Matt Pritchard, explains: "When Paul first came to us to talk about what would go on to become Unhampered, we were on board straight away. As luck would have it, we'd been discussing how we wanted to work on a self-generated project of our own that could really help push the independent businesses in town that we love. Then magically, the next week we got an email from Paul asking us if we wanted to meet up to discuss his idea. It felt like Kismet. "Although the idea has evolved and changed through this incredibly challenging year, the ultimate goal has remained fixed. 'Create a platform that showcases local independent businesses and gives customers an easy way of finding them'. We were lucky enough to create the Shop and Support local video campaign for the council last year and it gave us the opportunity to talk to so many incredible businesses, strengthening our resolve to get Un-hampered launched so that we could show our support to them. "We're excited to get phase one off the ground finally and we hope it will be a platform that helps local businesses at a really critical time." Independent Businesses hold the answer to many of the big issues of the day and by supporting local businesses we: · Immediately support the local economy· Help create good quality local jobs· Give our town a personality and character· Lessen our impact on the environment· Increase the sense of community· Improve facilities and social contact Matt has lead the Unhampered charge and the rest of the Defeye team have come together bringing all of our skills and knowledge to be able to create a brand and platform that's easy to use and looks like it belongs to the businesses that it aims to represent. The time is right to encourage people to support local businesses. These independent businesses are the foundation of our town, when you shop with them they, in turn, feed money into the local economy. When you eat at a local independent restaurant, chances are they've purchased the veg from a local grocer, they may have bought it from a local farm, the farmer services his van at the local garage, the garage owner advertises with us, we eat in the same restaurant - the money stays local and helps build the local economy.

Modernising TheHigh Street.

The Unhampered directory is the first phase, we have so much more to offer and we’ll be bringing you news as we launch each new development. We really do want to modernise access to the traditional high street and help businesses maintain a physical presence. Be sure to let us know what you think — Have a look at Unhampered and if you have a favourite place that is not listed on the platform, get in touch with us! Matt Pritchard — Defeye Creative07969 740357 Paul Chapman — S40 Local07764 801080 www.un-hampered.co.uk