Positive Eats second Southsea location to open as lockdown-born lifestyle business expands

Started during lockdown by married couple and nutritionists Lynsay and Laurence Groves as a fresh juice business, Positive Eats first opened in Winter Road in January 2022 and has since gone from strength to strength. Now, the pair are preparing to open a new restaurant - selling salad bowls, juices and smoothies - in Palmerston Road at the former site of Subway. It will welcome its first customers at 9am on Saturday, February 3.

The second site will be roughly four times the size of the the first, and the team are excited to bring "something different" to the "iconic" area. Laurence said: “Even from day dot, we have been so busy. The natural progression was just to go somewhere bigger with seating inside. With it being on Palmerston Road, it should be a busier area - especially in spring and summer time when people are floating around that area. The corner where we are - where the old Subway used to be - and then obviously you have got Knight and Lee, Debenhams and Natwest on the other three corners. That area is quite an iconic part of Southsea.

"Seeing those four giants move out and the shops derelict for the past few years has been quite sad really. It's nice to be able to do our bit and be the first of those four corners to reinvest and rejuvenate the area. Hopefully within the next few years we might see that area come back to life - we want to be a part of it and create a bit of a hub in the area.We’re giving people a healthier food option with our salad bowls, the juices and the smoothies. It will be something different from the area."

He added that there has been a “really nice” response from people who have noticed signage appear at the site in recent weeks. The Portsmouth business has expanded its remit to become “Positive Life”, in hopes that the brand could expand to other lifestyle areas, and Laurence said he hopes it can expand further afield in the near future. The pair have "earmarked” a place near Portsmouth and Southsea train station within the next year. The new restaurant has taken on five new staff with more potential employment opportunities to come as the business expands.

Laurence said: “The idea is to expand at quite a fast rate. We haven’t got a crystal ball and we don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re smiling, we’re enjoying it and that's all that matters really.”

Further rennovation is expected in Palmerston Road as work has begun to create new flats at the former Debenhams department store. Planning permission to redevelop the site was agreed in November 2021 and a business case has since also been approved for the relocation of Trafalgar Medical Group Practice to the new ground floor health centre. Workers have been active at the site – now known as Handleys Corner – and structures behind the street-facing portion of the building have been demolished. Scaffolding has been erected on the building’s facade and construction is underway.