Owner of quirky Northampton gift company named as ‘emerging entrepreneur’

A businesswoman who runs a much-loved fridge magnet company centred around local landmarks, sports teams and events has been named as an ‘emerging entrepreneur’.

Kardi Somerfield, who owns FridgeStreet, is also doctoral student and senior lecturer in Advertising and Digital Marketing at the University of Northampton.

FridgeStreet creates unique illustrations of iconic places across Northampton, immortalising them on giftware including fridge magnets, textiles, mugs and most recently a jigsaw.

A magnet was even created a Baffle the badger that fell through the roof at Superdrug earlier this year.It is the creativity behind the business, which was set-up to help save the high street, which led to Kardi being chosen to represent the university in the Santander Universities Emerging Entrepreneurs programme.

She said: “I wanted to change the narrative around the death of the UK’s high street.

“Yes, out of town and online shopping is popular, but to save our high streets, we’ve got to get creative, so the idea for FridgeStreet was born.

“The advice from the enterprise team (at the university) helped me take my idea and turn it into a flourishing business.

“Thanks to the university’s partnership with Santander Universities, I was awarded an initial £1,000 seed funding, which gave me capital to purchase stock, as well as giving me fantastic advice on the best way to structure my business.”

The Santander Universities programme is one of the UK’s largest entrepreneurial business pitching competitions for students, recent graduates, and university staff in which the best and entries stand the chance of winning funding.

Kardi added: “Over the five-month competition we worked through structured workshops to develop the narrative and pitch for our business, and explore funding opportunities.

“We also had great support sessions designed to help boost our motivation and resilience, as well as networking with mentors, as well as competing against a variety of other businesses.

“I’m pleased that FridgeStreet could compete with the other business in the regional heats, and I was delighted to get as far as the semi-final of the competition.

“Through the help and support of the programme, I’ve been able to make small changes to FridgeStreet, which have seen big changes, and importantly boosted product sales.

“May 2020, was my best month of trading as I went online in lockdown, now I’ve learnt some lessons and I’m gearing up for Christmas.”

Simon Poulter, Santander Universities UK Relationship Manager said: “It is testament to the University of Northampton, and to the enterprising spirit of all the student led start-ups, that such a strong and exciting business was nominated as Northampton’s representative for this year’s competition.

“I’d like to offer my personal thanks and congratulations to Kardi for her fantastic pitch and for engaging with our programme so passionately.”

FridgeStreet has a growing catalogue of more than 230 local landmarks, which are on sale across the county including in Vintage Guru, St Giles Street and in the FridgeStreet online shop.

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