A Brixton gift card backed by the Brixton Business Improvement District (BID), with financial support from Brixton Brewery, Morleys department store and Brixton Village, will launch in time for Christmas.
The cards are part of a programme run by a Scotland-based company. Both physical and digital versions will be available. The “Gift Brixton” cards will be accepted at participating local businesses.
“Brixton is famous for its independent businesses and shops that you simply can’t find anywhere else,” said Gianluca Rizzo, managing director of the BID.
“Gift Brixton is the perfect platform to connect local residents, employees, and visitors with those businesses.”
He said the card was “created for the Brixton community and supported by the Brixton community” to “showcase everything that makes Brixton unique – all in one card”.
Morleys’ Kinga Halaszi said Brixton is like nowhere else and deserves to have its own gift card.
“Having the card will give locals and tourists a chance to visit a wide variety of businesses in Brixton including ones they haven’t tried before, driving footfall, which is essential for bricks and mortar businesses,” she said.
“It’s also a chance for Brixton businesses to collaborate on a gift card for the area that we can all get behind, big businesses and small.
“It’s such a brilliant idea, we’re proud to sponsor it, and we can’t wait to accept the first cards in store.”
Morleys Tooting branch was closed after 70 years of trading in April this year. It is to be turned into a hotel.
Brixton Brewery co-founder and managing director Jez Galaun said the brewery is sponsoring Gift Brixton “to help celebrate what an amazing place Brixton is, and to encourage people to discover all it has to offer, from food to art to culture.”
Another Brixton Brewery co-founder, Xochitl Benjamin, said Gift Brixton is “a fantastic way to support smaller businesses and keep money circulating in the local economy.
“Local small businesses are a huge generator of opportunities, and they do so much to help create the magic of Brixton, but they need all our love and support.
“This card is a brilliant and practical way to help the community. We’reaccepting the card at the Brixton Brewery Taproom [on Brixton Station Road] and you can also buy a card there.
“The Brixton Gift Card makes it easy for everyone to keep it local.”
Brixton Brewery is now wholly owned by Heineken and brews most of its product in Enfield, North London.
Diana Nabagereka, general manager of Brixton Village, said the launch of Brixton’s first gift card is not only an essential move, “but a testament to making it even easier to support authentic, independent and home-grown brands.
“Community continues to sit at the heart of how Brixton moves and I truly hope that this Brixton-only gift card can open up our community to those curious and those wanting to gift more uniquely.”
The Granville Arcade and Market Row, which make up Brixton Village, are owned by companies registered in Amsterdam and controlled by the Texas-based TPG Inc. a “global alternative asset management firm”. Both were offered for sale at £80m a year ago, but there has been no apparent or publicly acknowledged interest to date. They were bought for £37m in 2018.
The card will be part of the award-winning Town & City Gift Card programme from Scotland-based financial technology company Miconex, which is active across the UK and Ireland, with over £45m spent locally and 20,000 businesses benefiting as a result of its services.
Colin Munro, managing director of Miconex, a former chef and restaurateur, said: “Town & City Gift Cards, like the forthcoming Gift Brixton gift card, are a proven means to divert online spend back into local businesses, making supporting local easy and enjoyable for consumers and organisations alike.
“We look forward to working alongside Brixton BID on launching this unique gift card concept for Brixton.”
Munro said that one of the problems he identified as a small business was how to communicate with local people.
“All small businesses have something to say, they want to tell people what they’re doing, it’s a simple objective. And the other side is that local people want to know what local businesses are doing.
“Alongside my co-founder Richard Gray, we set about solving that challenge and created Mi Inverness, a digital communications platform for the city.
“We signed up 9,500 people to the Mi Inverness email newsletter which enabled us to take messages from local businesses to a local audience.
“Then we developed the UK’s first smartphone app and website where businesses could upload news, events and offers into this digital infrastructure.
“This took us from Inverness to working with other towns and cities.”
He said the company’s priority now is working with places so they can develop an unbeatable local offer through their Town & City gift card.
“Customers can experience their favourite big brands alongside their favourite local restaurant or indie shop.
“It helps them to discover hidden gems right where they live.
“By identifying the strongest giftable themes in each place, we can bring the idea of ‘unbeatable local choice’ alive for consumers and make it easier for customers to see the benefits of choosing local.
“I’m excited about helping our clients to realise the full potential of their gift card programme, diverting more money back into their local area.”
The Brixton Pound, also designed to keep money in the area, has fallen into disuse, although examples of its banknotes – which were once available from an ATM in Brixton Village – are now offered for sale at well over their face value. The asking price from a £10 “David Bowie” note is £16.70.
The pound was launched in 2009 with 170 businesses signed up to accept it. It was the world’s first complementary local currency in a major urban area.
