A POPULAR grocery store located in Acton Central has expanded and opened a second shop, next door to its original.

Basil & Tom's, which first opened in 2018, is located at 37 Churchfield Road and is owned by husband and wife, Max and Gabby.

Max would work as a food caterer in the film industry, often going on location and cooking for film crews.

Gabby told Nub News: "Max was looking for something on the side in order not to be entirely dependent on the catering.

"We live locally and always felt like Acton was missing a good quality fruit and veg store."

As they were walking along Churchfield Road one day, they saw a shop for rent that was 'ideally looking for someone to run it as a green grocer'.

"We thought, 'this is a sign from the universe,'" Gabby said.

"Two months later, we had opened Basil & Tom's."

Gabby used to work at Sky but left her job and now runs the shop alongside her husband.

Originally the pair only planned to sell fruit and veg, but quickly realised that customers wanted more and started expanding their products on offer, with the likes of sourdough bread and cheese.

They also offer a local delivery service for fruit and veg, to houses in Acton, Ealing, Chiswick and Shepherd's Bush, with this side of the business really taking off during lockdown.

The mum-of-two said: "With supermarket slots being booked up very quickly, lots of people turned to us as they realised we not only had delivery slots available, but also lots of fresh and high quality products."

Last summer, the butcher who occupied the shop next door was closing down and the couple started thinking about expansion.

"The local community had really warmed to us in the two years we had been open and they kept asking for more products, so we decided to take over the shop next door and sell other foods, such as meat, seafood, eggs, dairy and pasta", added Gabby.

The pair opened their second store last Friday, March 12, to a very positive response.

"Apart from our loyal customers who wanted to come and check out the new store, we've had new people come in who didn't know about us before.

"We now have two shops next to each other where people can buy everything they need for their meals: bread, cheese and veg in one and then meat, fish and pasta in the other", added Gabby.

As a result of the new store, the couple are planning to hire some more staff members, as their current employees run the first store, while the two of them are in charge of the new one for the time being.

Gabby said: "It's hard work, but I really enjoy it, I can't picture myself having another desk job again.

"It feels nice knowing we've created something ourselves that people like and that we're our own bosses."

Looking ahead to the future the couple want to expand their delivery service further and offer more products outside of fruit and veg.

At the same time, they're interested to see if people's habits change once 'things return to normal'.

"We've seen people make a real shift in their shopping habits due to the pandemic and lots of people now choose to shop locally.

"I'm interested to see whether that will revert back to what it used to be like previously once restrictions are eased, or whether people will still want to support local businesses.

"I hope the latter, the community spirit we've seen in the past year has been great and long may it continue," Gabby added.