Upstairs Downstairs take top cookshop award
A family store in Shropshire which had traded for more than 30 years has been named the Independent Cookshop of the Year.
Upstairs Downstairs in Oswestry took the title at the Excellence in Housewares Awards ceremony to the delight of the husband and wife owners, Yossi and Raine Gliksman.
After receiving their award they paid tribute to their customers who they said had been loyal to them throughout and after the pandemic.
And they revealed that, with people shopping and holidaying locally since Covid they were seeing new customers all the time.
The Excellence in Housewares Awards recognises the country's top housewares retailers, products, and suppliers. The award were given out at an event at the The Royal Lancaster in London.
Mr Gliksman said those taking part included names big and small in the industry and the team and Upstairs Downstairs had been delighted to take the title for independent shop.
"We were also finalists in best retail display and best retail training," he said.
"Since we have come back from lockdown the support we have had from the local community is phenomenal, you can't put it into words."
"People are definitely shopping locally rather than travelling to cities and people are also moving into this area from away.
"We are seeing new customers every day and many or people who have moved from the south."
He said that Oswestry's shops had also benefitted from holidaymakers staying in the UK this summer.
"We have some lovely places to stay in the area and holidaymakers have told us how much they enjoy visiting Oswestry and how friendly it is.
"The town really is thriving and people are so loyal it really does pull at the heart strings," he said.
The Independent Cookshop of the Year category was sponsored by Le Creuset.
