Byron Market Stallholders Make a Comeback After Covid
By Kate Love
For 4 years Estelle Schmitt has been selling crystal-infused botanical perfume oils at Byron’s most iconic markets.
“Creating botanical fragrances is a very creative process that involves synesthesia. My inspiration could be an essence, a colour, or a feeling, and I build it up from there,” she says.
French-born Estelle’s love of botanical perfumes developed into a business and a popular market stall - Estelle's Haven - that she sets up each month early on a Sunday at Byron’s main beach foreshore.
But in March, Covid-19 suddenly changed everything. The Byron Community Market, which has been held almost every first Sunday of the month for over 30 years, attracting over 300 stallholders and up to 15,000 visitors, shut down.
Creative Hub
Over the years, Estelle’s market stall has become so much more to her than a way to sell her botanical perfumes. The stallholder community in Byron, as well as the relationships she builds with customers, are a vital part of her life.
She started with one fragrance and two massage balms on half a stall and grew from there.
“The markets give you the ability to start very small. It is also a wonderful opportunity to have direct feedback from your clients and improve your product as you go along. You can grow your clientele and wholesalers can find you too!”
In essence, Estelle’s business revolved around the markets.
“Before Covid-19, I was attending the Twilight Market, the Community Market, as well as the Beachside Artisan Market,” she says. Estelle had a set routine: making her perfumes during the week and selling them at the markets on the weekend.
“As I grew my business alongside raising my child, I only sell my perfumes at the markets and have only a handful of wholesalers, which makes me market dependent.”
The markets give Estelle, and hundreds of other local small businesses, a space to share their unique products.
“Markets are our local economy. When you buy at the market, you buy from your neighbour!” she says. “You help them support their families, their dreams, and develop their craft and innovative ideas. Markets are the birthplace of a lot of creative enterprises.”
Markets Closure
Estelle moved her business online during the market's closure, but it was a struggle financially.
“Having to put the markets on hold was absolutely heartbreaking for us and devastating for our stallholders,” says Byron Markets manager Kate Hardman. “Hundreds of families and households have been affected, some having to give up trading and find alternative income.”
The closing of the markets meant an almost total loss of income for Estelle. While a market stall can be stocked with a variety of botanical perfumes, online selling means that customers are unable to smell the fragrances.
“I have an online shop but very few people buy perfumes without smelling them first so it is mainly for returning customers. My wholesalers did not need to restock since their businesses slowed down too.”
Estelle says the experience was “stressful”. She continued to make perfumes during the pandemic, but her business made drastically less sales and the running costs were still ongoing.
At the markets, Estelle gets to meet her customers, understand the scent they are looking for, and match them with the perfect perfume. This is an important aspect of her business that is impossible to do online.
Over the time of closure, Byron Markets lost 35% of its total annual revenue. No staff were laid off but Kate says that without Job Keeper they wouldn’t have survived.
“Markets staff worked really hard to keep everything going. We came up with creative ideas to support stallholders and provided constant communication. There was a sense that we were all in this together.”
The call to close the markets was a difficult one, but the safety of the community took precedence, and Kate was grateful for the response from market sellers.
“We got no blowback, only positive feedback and support,” she says. “The response from stallholders was overwhelming and unexpected. People considered the community as a whole even though it impacted them so much.”
Byron Markets is run as a social enterprise. All of the profits go back into the Byron Community Centre, supporting a range of essential community programs and services.
In August, Byron Markets reopened after its 4 month closure.
“Being back at the markets was a joy for me,” says Estelle. “I felt a renewed sense of enthusiasm.”
Community Connection
Byron Markets is not only a space for local businesses to sell their products, but also a community of stallholders. For many people in the Northern Rivers, markets are a way of life.
People connect with each other weekly at the Twilight Market in Railway Park, monthly at the Community Market, and four times a year at the renowned Beachside Artisan Market with its ‘make it, bake it, grow it’ philosophy.
The markets in Byron create a sense of community for visitors and stallholders alike. The closure of the markets had a significant impact on market sellers, both personally and socially.
Despite the financial stress, for Estelle, the 4 month break has enabled her to improve her business.
She has used the time to create new markets signs and displays and completed online courses in website design and marketing. She has even created a new perfume.
“I was able to focus on finishing the formulation for my new fragrance. Even though sourcing the fragrant materials was complicated due to the restrictions and delays with the post office.”
Recognising the stress the market closure was putting on stallholders, Kate and her team provided additional support.
“During that period we did our best to support our community of small businesses and worked with stallholders to get everyone onto an online database,” she says.
“We offered extra help to those who are less tech savvy and don’t have an online presence, giving opportunities to build websites and create social media accounts and learning how to maintain them.”
Byron locals have also felt the impact of the closure. The markets are a large part of Byron’s identity and essential to the Shire’s community spirit.
I’ve attended the markets since the 1990s and have missed the community connection during the months of closure and the opportunity to support local businesses.
Byron Markets have always been the heart of Byron for me with eclectic characters, unique products and a lively atmosphere that always lifts my spirits.
Covid-Safe Reopening
Reopening the markets with Covid-safe rules was a challenge for Kate and the Byron Markets team. At the first Community Market a third of the market sellers didn’t book a stall due to concerns about Covid-19.
“The first market back we didn’t know what to expect,” says Kate. “Everyone was on edge and really vigilant. Once we were onto the second and third markets the stallholders were really happy to return.”
The team spent weeks setting up Covid-safe measures including visitor information, introducing Covid Marshalls, replanning the market map and organising hand sanitation stations that were sponsored by Brookie’s Gin.
The return of the markets, Kate says, has brought to light the vital role the markets play in our community in this challenging time.
“The connections people make are real,” she adds. “Some stallholders have been coming to the markets for 10 to 30 years. They’ve raised families together, been through big life events. They look out for each other. It’s a true community.”
After announcing the return of the markets in August, stallholder bookings gradually increased and are now at full capacity. By October all of the sites were booked. And in November there was a waitlist.
The community has a place to shop locally in a safe atmosphere where, even though there are restrictions in place, there is the opportunity to connect and have conversations.
“Bringing community together in a safe and familiar environment when some of us are so isolated, has a positive effect on mental health and social sustainability,” says Kate.
Now the markets are back in full swing, with Covid-safety measures in place. For Estelle, the first market back was “a little strange”.
“I believe people were a bit confused as to whether or not they could touch the products and how to approach the stalls. But now, everybody has adapted to the changes and it has been going great.”
As the year draws to a close, Estelle has returned to what she loves most: creating botanical perfumes.
“In my mind, colours, fragrances and feelings are all the same. A fragrance has a color. A mood has a scent. I also add crystals to my perfumes for their properties and visual aesthetics.”
Byron Markets are once again keeping the community spirit alive, stallholders are back in business, and supporting local has never been more important.
Estelle’s Haven
About Estelle
My journey into natural perfumery started after 9 years of experience as an aromatherapist when I realised that no safe and natural alternatives to conventional perfumes were available on the market. I was missing the complex and elegant fragrances of my youth (I am French-born, so I am a Chanel girl!) but my pledge to a greener lifestyle was in contradiction with the use of petroleum-based products. It is then that I decided to delve into the world of botanical perfumery and created 100% natural perfumes that are exquisite, sophisticated and absolutely safe to use.
Each fragrance is created with only natural ingredients - no synthetics and no isolates - to offer products that will respect your sensibility and respect the environment.
A perfume created from pure essential oils, distilled artfully will not only smell divine but will also move you - emotionally and spiritually. It is alive and tells a story. It is subtle and intimate and reveals itself while leaning into a hug or a kiss...
My wish is to wrap you into a wholesome fragrance that will transport you and reconnect you to your true self. Each one of my scents is designed with a particular intention and infused with crystals matching this intention. I hope you will find your matching scent here.