The founder of Gruun, Lore Tiebout, will soon be passing on the torch to a new operator. It is not yet clear whether the plant shop in the center of Brussels will keep its concept. “But at least there is concrete interest.”
Lore Tiebout founded the plant shop on the Oud Korenhuis in Brussels five years ago as a place where you can drink a coffee surrounded by greenery.
Earlier this year, the coffee beans died after a complaint from an upstairs neighbor. Noise pollution, it was originally communicated, would have been the culprit. Although it has now become clear that the origin of the complaint lay in the fact that the Gruun owner, as a tenant, is not contractually allowed to carry out a catering activity in the building, she tells BRUZZ.
“However, everyone who needed to know was already aware of my plans before Gruun arrived. In the end, the justice of the peace decided that no catering is effectively allowed in the building, and I have not appealed against that ruling.”
Chaos
Tiebout then decided to keep Gruun alive as a plant shop. “But I quickly felt that I was missing something,” she says. “The catering bug turned out to be stronger than I had thought.”
Tiebout is currently talking to potential buyers. “There is already concrete interest from at least one candidate. It is still too early to say whether or not Gruun will continue to exist as a plant store. Several possible concepts are discussed. I myself would of course like it if Gruun’s story could just continue.”
The founder of the plant shop at the Oud Korenhuis is now looking for a new challenge. “As a self-employed person or as an employee: I don’t know. As long as it is something with a portion of healthy chaos.”
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
