Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - Page number 102 - September/October 2021

102 Tell us a bit about your store and how you came to open the business. We opened the business after we moved to South Somerset for personal, family reasons. For four years I commuted back to London. I saw less of my family than I wanted, and had little time to appreciate the beautiful part of the world where we lived. I took redundancy from the Royal Mail Group in April 2011 and in September 2011 we bought a small, existing gift shop on Beaminster Square. The shop was the oddly named Cilla & Camilla. Amongst our first thoughts was a desire to change the name of the business. But we discovered the brand had some positive following locally and decided to stick with it. Then, briefly: 2012 – we acquired larger premises in Beaminster and relocated. 2013 – we opened a small gift shop in Bridport. 2013 – we acquired an existing Cook Shop (Salamander) on Cheap Street, Sherborne. 2015 – we acquired the adjacent premises on Beaminster Square, further extended the shop to introduce women’s fashion, and opened Café @ Cilla & Camilla. 2015 – we relocated to larger premises in Bridport. 2017 – we again relocated to larger premises in Bridport, where we now trade at 4 East Street. 2019 – we acquired premises at 11 East Street Bridport, which now trades as the Cilla & Camilla Cook Shop. 2021 - we acquired the premises adjacent to our Bridport Cook Shop, which will almost double the sales area when this space comes on stream in Autumn 2021. Is location important to the success of your business? Yes, it’s critical. We trade from the very best sites that we can afford in the towns where we trade. We see those relatively high occupation costs as, in part, a marketing expense. We thrive on footfall and ‘buy’ that footfall through commitment to high rents. It was also a conscious decision to trade from smaller, market towns, not dominated by multiple retailers. These towns suit our business with comparatively wealthy local residents and a steady influx of affluent visitors. What challenges were overcome when the company was starting out? The challenges then were the same as The Dorset dream Richard Barker, Founder of Dorset-based retail stores Cilla & Camilla, talks candidly about the family business, its best-selling products, and how they view high rental rates as a necessary marketing expense