A family-run village hardware store with a history spanning seven decades is celebrating becoming a national champion.
The Thompson family has been running their hardware shop in Great Ayton since 1957 and has now scooped the national Hardware Retailer of the Year award.
Now having moved premises for only the second time in its history, owner Richard Thompson, 52, is proud to bring in a new era of success for the family business.
With hundreds of DIY and garden suppliers, wholesalers and independent and multiple retailers in the running to scoop the top award, Richard never dreamed his family firm would be in with a chance of winning the top prize.
But Thompson Hardware, now based at Park Square 1,fought off competition from across the UK to scoop the Gold Award for Hardware Retailer of the Year at the DIY Week Awards ceremony held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.
“We were singled down to the last five and we were invited down to the ceremony in Coventry. We never dreamed we would actually win,” said Richard.
“We’re over the moon. We’ve beaten shops from all over the UK - everywhere from London, Norwich and Northern Ireland.”
The shop was opened in 1957 by Richard’s father Billy who died aged 72 in 1998, leaving the shop to Richard who lives in Great Ayton with his wife Jenny, 51.
The couple have four grown-up children, Charlotte, 26, Harriot, 25, Henry, 24, and Polly, 21.
Recalling the shop’s history, Richard said: “My father, Billy, used to be a cabinet maker. In 1957 he started up the shop in his own name on Newton Road, Great Ayton, after he was made redundant.
“In 1971, the business was doing so well my dad had the chance to move to Great Ayton High Street.
“The shop was still called Billy Thompson’s right up until five or six years ago.
“I came into the business straight from school. I had a brief apprenticeship with Hansell’s Hardware store in Redcar before I started with my dad.
“He was very well known around Great Ayton, it was a real community shop, everybody knew him.
“We were based on the high street for 44 years. We rented it from the Co-operative and so when they decided to expand their shop on the High Street, it was a case of either calling it a day or moving somewhere else.”
Little did Richard know, what seemed like terrible news would be the start of a whole new era for the shop.
“We moved from the high street to Park Square and contacted the industry paper, DIY Week, to ask if they wanted to run a story about our family business moving,” said Richard. “They got back to us and told us we had been put forward for the Retailer of the Year Award.”
“When we first found out that Co-op wanted to expand, that could have been it. I never used to believe in fate but I do now, business is doing great. It’s like my dad’s looking down and saying, ‘time to move on’.
“Now Henry’s taken the family name into a third generation with his business, H Thompson Services, which does fencing, gates and gardening.
“He’s got the same skills as my dad did.”
No comments:
Post a Comment