Spill the Beans (Lincolnshire) Limited

General information

In 1987 the late John Shaw retired from his role as Chief Constable of Humberside Police, and decided he wanted to try his hand at retailing; his son; Tim was a chef by trade so knew food and ingredients and Tim's late wife; Janet worked in advertising; collectively they had the skills and connections to become loose food retailers.

The family found a corner shop on the then very busy shopping area of Freeman Street, they fitted it out themselves, created relationships with fine food importers and began selling loose foods direct from the sack. After 2 years of successful trading the decision was taken to expand and a second more modern style of shop was opened on St Peters Avenue, Cleethorpes. Sadly John Shaw passed away in 2001. They continued to trade from both shops until in 2002 when the decision was made to close Freeman Street, the area had been in decline for a number of years and the shop was no longer viable, the family decided to operate as a single outlet. Sadly Janet passed away in 2012.

In 2014 Mike who previously ran a separate business joined Tim at the family business. They decided to establish a second shop in the market town of Louth, they both worked tirelessly for almost a year trying to find the right shop, they eventually a shop on Eastgate and began working until late into the night for over a month fitting the shop out.

Today we are still very much a family business with Tim running the Cleethorpes branch and Mike running the Louth branch. We still import our loose foods ensuring they are of the finest quality and we are as passionate today about our business as we was when it all began; still striving to offer good old fashioned service with a smile and personality!