Success Stories: Org Organics


Leeds Met graduate Novita Williamson has fulfilled a burning desire to be self-employed and in doing so has won national awards in recognition of her achievement with the success of Org Organics Ltd over the past few years.

Based in Great George Street , close to the city's courts and Leeds General Infirmary, Org sells organic products from fresh fruit and vegetables to meat and fish, alcohol, cosmetics and household products. A treatment centre in the newly fitted basement offering complementary therapies as well as a corporate gift service and a groceries delivery service now make up ORG Organics Ltd.

The pair are now gathering prestigious awards faster than they could have imagined, the most recent and prestigious being the ‘ Winner, Vision in Organic and Natural Retailing’, Natural Trade Show in the North, 2005 . Other awards include the, the ‘Soil Association, Best Small Shop 2004’ and a highly commended in the 'Natural Trade Show Best Organic Specialist in the North'.

The idea for Org developed when Novita was studying in the final year of an Economics and Public Policy degree at LMU. To help her cope with a busy lifestyle and the stress of exams Novita started eating healthily and doing stress reducing Yoga classes. This led to the idea of improving people's quality of life through good food, good health and a natural organic lifestyle.

Both Novita and Wai-Yii, are from London and came to study in Leeds , and both come from entrepreneurial backgrounds. Both Novita and Wai-Yii put their innovation and determination to succeed down to the aspirations they inherited from their self-employed parents.

Both girls have different strengths that have led to the success of Org, which they claim is largely due to keeping in touch with regular customers through a mailing list as well as being friendly and flexible.

Novita and Wai-Yii recognised early on that they didn’t have the big budgets needed for marketing, PR and the technical expertise needed to develop a website so they have kept in close contact with their universities who have referred students to work on Org projects. A strong relationship has developed where students get to practice the reality of their subject areas on a real company and Org reaps the benefit of reduced costs and innovative fresh ideas and expertise.