“I own thriving 122-year-old Edinburgh health food shop - people have been shopping here over generations”
John, who now owns Hanover Healthfoods in Edinburgh, only discovered how old the store was when searching library archives.
One of the oldest health food shops in Europe - located in Edinburgh - is continuing to thrive after 122 years, helped in part by renewed interest in online health and wellbeing trends.
Hanover Healthfoods on Hanover Street has been in business since at least 1904. It is believed to be the first health food shop in Edinburgh and one of the oldest still in business in Europe.
When the store opened, the health foods of the day included dried fruit, nuts, grains, flour and honey. Nowadays, the big sellers are often influenced by online trends and include Lion’s Mane, turmeric, ashwagandha, probiotics and essential fatty acids.
Ainslie Friel, whose family had owned the business for 82 years, retired in 2015. Current owner John, who started working at the shop part-time in 1994 while studying at university, bought the business later that year.
Until recently, nobody knew exactly how old the shop was, until John’s research uncovered advertisements from Edinburgh newspapers dating back to 1909, while other records show the business dates back to 1904.
John said: “When I started working, my boss, Ainslie, didn’t know how old the shop was. He knew his grandfather bought it in the early 30s. I went into the archives and the Central Library to work out how old it was - and it made me so aware of how good a business it has been for such a long period of time.
“We are the oldest business on Hanover Street - one of the oldest businesses in Edinburgh. We are pretty confident that we are one of the oldest surviving health food stores in the world - and very possibly the oldest in Europe.”
John began managing Hanover Healthfoods in 1998, and has overseen many changes in the business.
He said: “I started when I was a student as a Saturday job. I finished university and went full-time - then it just evolved. In 2015, my boss decided he was going to retire. He didn’t have any family to pass it on to, so I tried to sell the shop on his behalf - but then I thought that made no sense whatsoever. By that point, I’d been there for 20 years and it was in my DNA, so it just made sense for me to buy it.”
John has noticed big changes in customer demands, with more people than ever before seeking supplements and superfoods they have discovered through social media, podcasts and online health content.
He said: “In the beginning, it would have been unprocessed dried fruit, nuts, grains, flour, honey, and the beginnings of meat-free substitutes, along with some proprietary remedies for digestion and sleep. Brands like Kellogg’s, Allinson and Bournville would have been represented.
“Nowadays, functional mushrooms like Lion’s Mane are popular, along with turmeric, ashwagandha, probiotics and essential fatty acids. While vegan products are still strongly represented, more people are asking for animal-based products like bone broth, collagen, ghee and tallow, which would definitely have surprised most of our customers from the early days.
“The recent trends are towards clean supplements and clean body care, and this is influenced a lot by TikTok, Instagram and other online platforms. The pace of change can be very fast, and advice online can sometimes be contradictory. Something can be presented as bad one month and beneficial a few months later. Our role is to help customers filter that information through our uniquely long experience, keep things balanced and honest, and avoid simply chasing every trend.”
John, who has now owned the business for over 10 years, says it is a “real triumph” to have a shop stand the test of time the way Hanover has.
He said: “If you look at your average Scottish city centre - Edinburgh in particular - there are very few independent businesses in them. The fact that we’ve managed to last since 1904 is, I think, a real triumph and says a lot about the strength of the business.
“I think it’s important for us to keep doing what we have done for the past century - that is what people want and are responding to. The thing that I’m proudest about is that we have people who have been shopping here for decades - and in some cases, over generations. When we turned 120, it turned out that one of our customers - who is 90 - is actually the third of five generations of her family to shop with us!”