Godalming Nub News aims to support our community, promoting shops, businesses, charities, clubs and sports groups.

We profile some of these businesses and organisations regularly in a feature called 'Up Close in Godalming'.

Today we caught up with Kevin Depree, who runs the Deli in the High Street.

The 'buy local' mantra is one that is dear to the hearts of many Godalming people and businesses - and no more so than at the Godalming Food Company in the High Street.

Owner Kevin Depree is a passionate advocate of local businesses, and, as vice-chair of the local Chamber of Commerce, he is uniquely placed to help drive that message home.

Godalming is blessed to have a wide variety of independent shops, all run by people passionate about their business and keen to raise the craft of customer service to a new level.

It's an uphill battle for small shopkeepers. "Last year it was Brexit. This year it's Covid," Kevin says wryly as we sit in the Deli, which pre-lockdown 2 was busy with customers coming in for a takeaway coffee or browsing the shelves stocked with delicious locally-produced food, spices and drink.

At the rear of the Deli is a zero waste food refill station, providing a wide range of dried goods, from rice to pumpkin seeds, sugar to raisins… and flour!

At two small tables in the window, socially distanced, small groups drink coffee and chat about the issues of the day. It's a busy, welcoming place - with an atmosphere and an ethos Kevin and his team work hard to maintain.

"Business here is good," he says. The two lockdowns undoubtedly had an effect, but the Deli stayed open all the way through. "We became people's office, where they came for coffee," he says.

A deli that sells food - not a cafe.

But he is keen to stress that, first and foremost, the Godalming Food Company is just that - a local food shop, stocked with locally-sourced foodstuffs. "We're a Deli that sells food," he says. "We're not a cafe." The Deli was involved in the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme, which brought in a good number of customers. Christmas.

The Chamber's plans to promote festive shopping in the town have foundered due to Covid, and Kevin is cautious about the next few weeks.

"We've survived so far," he says. "Christmas for us is a big time of the year, and I am terrified that we have a lot of Christmas stock that will not sell."

He has focused on click and collect over the last few months, and that will continue until Christmas, via the new website.

With the lifting of the second lockdown next week, however, he is confident that customers will start their Christmas shopping as soon as they can.

"Normally for Christmas people leave it until the last minute and it's carnage in here," he laughs.

The Deli at Christmas is very Dickensian." One can see how: with its stripped wooden floors, wood shelves and subtle lighting, it fits perfectly with the ambience of the 16th-century building in which it sits.

The beginning.

The Godalming Food Company started life in the unit next door, at number 99 High Street. Kevin, a trained chef, and his wife Helen, a lawyer, decided to take the plunge with two friends, both accountants and with experience in IT, but with one thing in common: being passionate about food. Kevin explains: "We had been looking to open a Deli for a while, and looked at it, and then decided that we would buy it. We bought it - and it grew and grew and grew." To the Deli stock they added coffee and takeaway food, and ran successful cheese and wine events. When the lease ran out two years ago they decided to expand into the larger premises next door. They threw their heart and soul into the place, with friends building the furniture and wooden benches. Kevin did most of the fit out himself in order to save money.

He now runs the Deli, while Helen continues her career in law. And he is rightly proud of what they have achieved.

He is, he says, employing local people (he has five staff and seven at peak times) and giving local people what they want: fine, locally sourced foods, great coffee, somewhere to perch while drinking it, and the busy, bustling ambience of a town centre institution.

Locally sourced produce.

He is clearly passionate about his business and about the products he puts on his shelves. A large map near the front window declares the provenance of his foodstuffs: it reaches only as far as the edges of the county. Occasionally, he says, he will stock an item from further afield such as virgin olive oil from Italy, but the larger part of his mouthwatering fare is baked, bottled, created or cured within the Surrey boundary. "It's all local where possible, and if not local, then British," he says. "It's not about having a business that makes a lot of money," he says. "But as a business owner and a customer and a member of staff it's a great place to be." He and the staff get to know their customers and their suppliers, he says and what's going on in the town. "It's about being part of the community," he says, adding that he is "extremely appreciative" of the loyalty that his "lovely" customers have shown during this difficult year. "Pre-lockdown we had just started to spread our wings," he says ruefully. "We had 12 months of events in the diary and all the staff recruited and trained." But he's not pessimistic, he has plans for the future, and that future very much consists of growing his business in its new location. "We want to be known as a Deli that sells amazing local food and produce, and does some really, really good eat-in and takeaway food," he says. And the food is always fresh: he doesn't over-stock. "We do a set amount of sandwiches/salads each day, and when they are gone, they are gone," says Kevin. Caring for the environment.

The foodstuffs are wrapped in environmentally-friendly coverings as well, a subject about which he is particularly passionate.

He tells the tale of the time he and his wife, both scuba divers, travelled 30 hours to Borneo to dive. "The plastic in the ocean was horrendous," he says.

As a result he makes sure every scrap of wrapping is recyclable or compostable. "We can't say everything is plastic-free completely, but it's top of our list."

Local products stocked in the Deli include chocolate from the Clever Bean Chocolate Company and cheese from Cheese on the Wey - both made locally.

The stock changes too, with a new item or two added every month.

The Deli Kitchen menu also changes in line with the seasons or what's available: Kevin buys meat from The Godalming Butcher, fish from the fishmonger in Bridge Street and fruit and veg from Danny, who runs the stall at The Pepperpot.

He is cautious about the future, and with all the uncertainty around at the moment that's unsurprising, but he has big plans: "Our plans for the future are to be bigger, stronger, bolder," he says. "We just need to get through Christmas.

"One of the things that I am most proud of is that we have created a wonderful little place where we employ local people, and are a great place to be."

Click here to visit the Godalming Food Company website: every single item they sell is on the site, and there is a click and collect option too.