My name is Hannah Lovell, I'm the owner of the Square Wine company in Warwick with my
partner Tom Fisher. We sell wines from all around the world, from Europe to South America,
Australia and New Zealand and we also sell spirits and craft beers from around the world.
We offer a whole range of events in the shop and we do a monthly food and wine matching
evening and we also, every Friday night, host a gin club which has become very popular.
Warwick's a great place to do business because of the real diversity of independent traders
here, from restaurants to bakeries to interior designers to jewellers. You know, there is
a real variety of independent businesses that work really hard and you know, bring people into the town.
My name is Sharon Steadman and my business
is NV Her of Warwick. The products we sell are very quirky ladieswear, clothing, accessories
and lots of jewellery and lots of scarves and lots of lovely winter products. I would
definitely say the benefits of being an independent retailer are having individuality and it's
so nice to offer a service to people these days. So many high street brands aren't interested
in you and it's really nice to actually get some of the old traditions back and bring
back service into the industry.
My name is Jo Hobbs and this is Thomas Oaken Tearooms. So, the experience of having afternoon
tea is a lovely kind of ceremony with the tea strainer and all the lovely china. Once
a day at least somebody says to me, that's the best scone I've ever had in my life which is quite an accolade isn't?
My name is Maria Denney, and my business is called the Golden Monkey Tea Company. Well I have over 95 different types of loose tea
and any accessories that you need to make these teas but including chocolate as well
and cards and so on. There's nothing like being a part of a community and this has allowed
me as a small independent business, it has allowed me to integrate into a really lovely
community like Warwick's. Well, I am Robert and this is Firmstone's
the architectural ironmongers. Oh, we've been trading in Warwick for about 77 years now,
Leamington about 18 years, moved in from Stourbridge and founded the business in 1633. The products
that we mainly sell here, obviously the traditional wrought iron which is what we are all about,
all sorts of door furniture, hinges, latches, locks. The advantages of being an independent
retailer basically is you've got all the decisions yourself. So that means you can get the quality
you want, you need to have a really good product knowledge. For us basically we won't sell
anybody anything we're not prepared to sell or use ourselves.