‘Iguazu’ was established in 2003 by its founder, Neil, and has been a thriving family run business ever since!
Before starting my own business, I spent years after studying (where we met at Nottingham Trent University) travelling the world and living in places as diverse as Vancouver in Canada, Asuncion in Paraguay, Sydney in Australia and Hamilton in New Zealand.
Using these areas as bases to explore, we quickly fell in love with the myriad of fantastic handicrafts being produced around the world.
Having studied International Relations at university, my focus was on the inequalities found in the global economic system that kept these highly skilled artisans in a cycle of poverty.
Seeing this first hand around the world on our travels became something we could not ignore, so we decided to do something about it!
On returning from living and working as a teacher in Paraguay, I opened a small shop in Beeston near Nottingham University selling fairly traded gifts from around the world. As interest in the business increased, we rapidly took over two more shops as they became available next door, turning Iguazu Beeston into the shop you love now.
We opened Iguazu WB in 2008, and then put a huge extention onto the back of the Beeston store in 2016. One month before COVID became a thing, we opened our third shop in the Buttermarket in Newark.
Whilst trade post Covid was intially good, as the cost of living crisis kicked in, all 3 shops struggled, and in 2025 we had to close our Newark shop. The debts from that shop took its toll and with sales falling in WB, we were forced to close our West Bridgford shop in June 2026.
We are wokring towards building a stronger Iguazu from the one original location, and will be constantly improving our online presence going forward.
Thank you for your support over the last 25 years x
