On 3rd February we had the privilege of inviting a host of people to the official opening of the shop. It was a wonderful night and the shop was packed to the rafters. The only disappointing thing was that we couldn’t invite absolutely everyone, but we couldn’t fit everyone in!

It was wonderful to see so many faces that have helped get the shop together in its new style. We were delighted to welcome Elliot Colburn MP to cut the ribbon with our trainees to declare the till open for business!

The cutting of the ribbon was a proud moment for all involved, as many hours of blood, sweat and tears had gone into getting it completed on time. We had a number of people to thank, including Ashley for turning the vision from her head into reality, also the many candlelight hours she has put into completing her digital marketing course. Dave has been instrumental in developing the back office tasks, including overhauling our till system, and replacing it with a brand new inventory and point of sale system. Tony put in the hours of graft for the actual physical refurbishment including spending many an hour up a ladder painting white ceilings white … amongst many other things. We were also very grateful that we found Van, a local tradesman who we commissioned to build our counter and built in cabinets. He implemented the vision exactly as it should be.

Finally there was a very special mention for the ever brilliant Sue from Promise in Store, who received a bunch of flowers as a small token of our appreciation.

The launch of the physical shop was also an opportunity to announce the count down for our online store, a couple of weeks later. We wanted to make sure we gave our local community the first opportunity to shop before we went live online (with a 10% discount to boot!). 

It was a wonderful afternoon, with the fizz flowing and bespoke handmade cakes made by our trainees munched! 

Now the hard work starts!