Independents boost from retail royalty

22/01/08

Style Birmingham’s campaign to highlight the city’s independent retail sector received a massive boost when Mary Portas took a whistle-stop tour of the leading one-off boutiques and vintage stores.

Famed for her BBC2 series Mary Queen of Shops, the renownedretail strategist joined forces with Style Birmingham to take a look at the one-off shops around the city centre, with the best in the business winning a £5,000 cash bursary and invaluable advice on developing a strategy for future success.

Mary chose Disorder, a clothing store in Needless Alley, for the top prize, describing it as a”one of the cleverest small retailers I have ever seen.”

”This is a company that designs and manufactures in Birmingham, which is great. There are very few big names in this industry that could do that,” explained Mary. Delighted winners husband and wife team Mark Howard and Thiri Myat-Howard have been running Disorder for more than ten years. They plan to use the money to help fund their newly-appointed apprentice, Dan Phillips.

Mark said: “It is great to be recognised for what we do, after all, independent stores like ours help bring a lot of wealth to the city. We employ tailors locally and encourage local designers and manufacturers to work with us. We have gone out of our way to prove that you cna manage successfully in the UK.”

The bursary scheme has been launched by Retail Birmingham to promote the 100 independent retailers in the city centre and continues to provide support and advice.

A passionate supporter of the small retail business, Mary added: “this is such an important initiative. The independnets have many issues to face, not least the fact that they are up against the big brands and we need to re-educate the cutomer to support them.”

For further information and to see an interview with Mary Portas please go to www.stylebirmingham.co.uk