CELEBRATING BUSINESS IN BRADFORD ON AVON
BoA Business Awards celebrate Bradford on Avon’ s best
The winners of Bradford on Avon’ s second business awards have been revealed.
On Thursday October 13, the town’ s business community came together to celebrate the BoA Business Awards at St Margaret’ s Hall.
The 2017 awards follow the success of the inaugural BoA Business Awards in 2016, designed to celebrate the diversity of the town and the surrounding villages business landscape.
2017 saw 113 nominees in 16 categories and over 4,500 votes were cast, nearly double the figure of the 2016 awards.
Andrew Eberlin, chair of BoA Business and award organiser said:“ We’ re thrilled the town is getting behind our award scheme and is supporting the variety of predominantly independent businesses in Bradford on Avon. Competition this year was fierce; in several categories businesses won by just a few votes!”
The award ceremony and dinner was a sell-out with
120 tickets sold. Jackie Allan, owner of Piha, a shop in the town and also a BoA Business Award organiser said:“ In future years, we might have to look at another venue the awards have been such a success. It was fantastic to see St Margaret’ s Hall full of the town’ s movers and shakers and those that often work tirelessly behind the scenes without getting noticed.”
The Professional Services award was presented by the evenings VIP guest Michelle Donelan MP.
@ BusinessBoA
For more info: www. boabusiness. co. uk
James Eades from Systemagic presenting the Dandy Lion with their award
The winners in each category were best: Creative Industries: Groovy Moovers Shop: Doghouse Venue Hire: Cumberwell Park Start-up: Doghouse Cafe: The Weaving Shed IT: Systemagic Customer Service: Doghouse Health, well-being & education: Cumberwell Park Professional Services: Bath & West Fire & Safety Pub: The Dandy Lion Food & Drink Producer: Kettlesmith Brewing Accommodation: Widbrook Grange Restaurant: The Weaving Shed Travel: Travel Options 4 U Estate Agent: Jeremy Jenkins Wedding Service: Widbrook Grange
HERE WE MEET JUST A FEW OF THE WINNERS...
THE DOGHOUSE
New pet shop the Doghouse won in three categories on the night, best shop, best start-up and best customer service. Having only opened in August 2017, people are going barking mad for their unique offering. We met owner Ruth Warren to find out more.
What did you do before the Doghouse?
I ran a much smaller pet shop called Fetch in the Shambles, Bradford on Avon. I’ d had the shop for nine years. It was small and perfectly formed and gave me a real understanding of my customers, a thorough grounding in the reality of retail and gave me a chance to really get to know my trade.
What made you come up with the Doghouse concept? We outgrew our last premises within a few years to be honest, but life got in the way of us really looking seriously for a new premises and Fetch was ticking over nicely as it was, so I have to admit I coasted for a few years and just enjoyed it for what it was, a lovely‘ lifestyle’ business which was really fun to run. I eventually got bored and that’ s when I really started to put together the idea of this whole new concept. Retail has changed so dramatically in the ten years I have been trading and as retailers we have to respond to those changes and evolve or fade away. There isn’ t a single thing in my shop that you can’ t buy on the internet, and probably cheaper too, but you cannot buy the experience you get coming into Doghouse, and that’ s what make this such an exciting prospect. High street retail has to be something different if it is to survive in this new ecommmerce driven environment, so what I did was to look at ways in which I could increase the offering and make the business an attractive destination. Adding the dog grooming was a no-brainer, with the explosion in popularity of the poodle cross breeds, the demand for grooming has escalated hugely with local groomers closing books to new clients. Although I knew nothing about grooming, I knew that the service element would be attractive and ensure a constant footfall of potential customers throughout the year. The café element of the business started as a fun idea to keep customers in the shop browsing our products while they waited for their dog to be groomed, it also gave us a way to be creative with our offering in a truly unique way, a café designed for dog owners serving cakes, ice cream and even puppaccino’ s for dogs too! We don’ t really believe in humanising our dogs, but we do believe in having fun and we have so much fun with this side of the business. It is the combination of these three distinct business elements which makes us unique and has drawn customers to visit the town to come to see us.
Do you cater for just dogs? Although the shop is heavily orientated towards dogs we carry a wide range of foods and accessories for cats and all cat owners will tell you that cats are always in charge in the Doghouse!
Do people travel far to pamper their pooches at the Doghouse? We have regular visitors from a wide local area, including Bristol and Cheltenham, but also from as far as Oxford and London. We think this is largely because of the social media we do and the events we have organised. The first event, Sausage Dog Sunday, was a huge success. We managed to persuade a lovely coat company to come and launch their new range for dachshunds from the shop, we had around sixty dachshunds of all shapes and sizes come for fittings!
Is being part of the Bradford on Avon business community important to you?
The support and information we share with our neighbouring businesses is a vital part of developing Bradford on Avon, their success is our success. We all need to support one another to survive, whether that’ s through a cup of tea and a metaphorical hand-hold when we face new challenges, or to help one another with business decisions, such as where to find the best deal on credit card processing.
How does it feel to have won the BoA Business Awards in three categories?
It’ s been so absolutely humbling to see the hard work and commitment of my brilliant team recognised in such a public way. We just love what we have created and it was so, so hard getting here, that to have such a resounding endorsement is just utterly amazing.
@ DOGHOUSE _ BoA
22 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017