Made in Chelsea stars reveal surprising side hustle after uniting off-screen
MADE in Chelsea stars Sam Prince and Tristan Phipps have revealed their surprising side hustle after launching a new green-fingered venture.
The close friends have founded an online company called bellr, selling high quality houseplants for less.
Entrepreneur Sam, 26, dreamt up the idea in lockdown 2020, with Tristan later joining as the fourth business partner and co-founder of bellr.
They’re now looking to open pop-up shops across London and eventually a store to sell plants and coffee.
“I’ve always been obsessed with house plants and sustainability,” Sam told The Sun.
“We had an idea in lockdown 2020 to build a business focused around plants and offer something affordable and sustainable, and also personal.
“I’ve had plants delivered in the past which have been ridiculously pricey online. They’d arrive without any explanation about what to do with them – whereas all of our plants come with instruction cards.
“One of our USPs is that we import our products, take them into our nursery, grow them and look after them. We don’t drop ship at all, so that enables us to drop prices as a whole. Also sustainability is key for us, all our packaging across the board is sustainable.”
Hundreds of people turned out to The Pantiles in Tunbridge Wells this weekend where the reality stars launched bellr on the market scene.
“I think plants right now are really trendy,” says Sam, who has appeared in Made in Chelsea on and off since 2017.
“It’s become a necessity to have plants in our homes.
“There’s a lot of eco-anxiety at the moment with many stressing about the current state of the environment.
“People are more aware now of the effect the plants can have in your household. As well as them looking beautiful, they can also have a huge calming effect and air purifying benefits.”
Sam’s girlfriend and Made in Chelsea co-star Inga Valentiner joined him and Tristan at the market, selling off hundreds of plants that left their nursery near-empty.
Tristan, who joined the E4 show in 2018, grew close to Sam while filming abroad in Mallorca last year.
Speaking about his friendship with Tristan, Sam said: “We get on really well. He suits the company so well and seemed a perfect match.
“Yes, we’re working and building something great, but the best bit is getting to work with my mate every day.
“We absolutely love being at the market and spent the whole weekend chatting to customers.
“It was great to be customer facing and meet people who had traveled to come and see and purchase some of our houseplants.
“There was a huge response, which was overwhelming. Yes, we do this TV show, but we didn’t expect to have so many people come down and engaging in house plants. It’s incredible.
“The whole nursery was full with hundreds of plants and we were left with three in total.
“The company is going from strength to strength so it’s been worth the early starts and late nights. We’re doing something we love and the fact I can work with my girlfriend and my mate is great.”