A butcher, a baker and a bicycle-maker are among the independent businesses set to open in the latest extension to Bristol’s highly successful CARGO retail hub.
CARGO – the city’s first retail hub made of converted shipping containers – is already home to dozens of mainly food and beverage retailers. 
Developer Umberslade opened CARGO 1 shortly before last Christmas with 18 units. CARGO 2 added a further 38 businesses in 46 former containers when it came on stream in May.
The next phase will accommodate seven further businesses in eight more containers, one of which will be a double-size unit, taking the scheme further along Museum Street behind M Shed.
The businesses to open in the new extension are:
Beer Necessities. An independent craft beer retailer with a passion for seeking out the best beer available throughout the UK and further afield.
Brothers We Stand. A new clothing retailer, selling exclusively ethically produced menswear from a tightly curated collection of independent brands and designers, pictured.
Lemonade. Creator of imaginative and tasty burgers, fries and lemonades.
Portside Gallery. A contemporary art and craft gallery featuring Jane Reeves’ unique fused-glass paintings, as well as a variety of high-quality work from other selected artists and makers.
Temple Cycles. A Bristol-based bicycle producer which manufactures a range of modern bikes with a classic aesthetic for town, country, touring and road riding.
The Assembly Bakery. A small team of artisan bakers with taste and ethics at their core. They bake pastries, cakes and bread and say their sourdough is the best in Bristol. They move with the seasons and offer lots of gluten free and vegan deliciousness.
The Meat Box by The Story Butchers. It aims to become the neighbourhood butchery dedicated to using whole animals as much as possible, raised responsibly, often organic and always free-range.
The businesses are due to start their fit-outs in the coming weeks.
Umberslade director Stuart Hatton said: “I’m very excited to have on board such a great selection of independent businesses, ranging from an art gallery to a bike shop, from a bakery to an ethical clothing shop, and a burger joint to a beer merchant.
“With all the buzzing shops, restaurants, cafes and lifestyle businesses along Gaol Ferry Steps and at CARGO, there’s now a fantastic range of places to explore.”
Umberslade has let all CARGO containers to independent retailers, offering many of Bristol’s up-and-coming businesses the chance to try out a permanent base for the first time or expand a successful concept into a larger unit.
A number had only previously operated pop-up venues at festivals while others had run smaller venues. CARGO has been built next to Umberslade’s Wapping Wharf’s Gaol Ferry Steps food-and-drink development, which is home to a number of more established businesses in larger units such as the Better Food Company, Wild Beer Co and Mokoko.
Beer Necessities director Henry Revell said: “We have made the choice to open our first store at CARGO 2 as we feel it’s a great location with an exciting mix of independent retailers and restaurants.”
Brothers We Stand director Sam Mabley said he was convinced CARGO should be the location for its first bricks-and mortar shop as soon as he saw it.
“There’s a real buzz at Wapping Wharf, with a fascinating group of people and businesses that share a similar vision and ethos to us,” he said. “We’re excited to join the community with our curated collection of ethical men’s clothing.”
Jane Reeves, artist at Portside Gallery, added that she wanted to build on the success of her gallery in Padstow by opening in her home city of Bristol. “We will bring the very best of contemporary painting, ceramics, sculpture and unique designer jewellery to this fantastic port side location,” she said
Lemonade owner and chef Alex Hayes described CARGO as celebrating Bristol’s thriving independent and creative scene. “There is no other place I’d want my business to start out,” he said.
Luke Hasell, from The Meat Box by The Story Butchers, said his butcher shop would create a “beautiful lifecycle for whole animals – beef, pork, lamb, chicken, rabbit and duck”.
“The animals all come from farms that are organic or part of the Pasture Fed Livestock Association. Our suppliers have been hand-picked with the highest regard to animal husbandry and ultimate tastiness for our customers,” he said.
Temple Cycles designer Matthew Mears said the businesses was joining CARGO as it offered a great spot for people to meet them to try out their bikes, while The Assembly Bakery managing director James Dingle said CARGO had been exciting for Bristol’s food scene.
“We feel we have a great role to play in providing freshly baked breakfast pastries and croissants in the morning to hungry commuters, snacks of wonder at lunch and their daily loaf on your way home,” he said.
The first 194-home phase of the Wapping Wharf neighbourhood is now complete, with phase two, which will include around 320 new homes, coming next.
