Nusrat Ghani, MP for Wealden, visited several small local businesses including a butcher, florist and haberdashery shop, in support and celebration of the upcoming 10th anniversary of Small Business Saturday this weekend.
Small Business Saturday UK is a non-commercial campaign, which highlights small business success, and aims to have a lasting impact on small businesses by encouraging consumers to shop local and support businesses in their communities. The day itself takes place on the first Saturday in December each year, with this year's celebrations falling on Saturday 3rd December. This is the tenth year of the campaign running in the UK, and it continues to go from strength to strength, with over £1.1 billion spent at small businesses on the day last year.
Nusrat visited several local shops including MAYBUGS and The Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, and Davies and Sons Butchers in Horam, to support this year's campaign and to encourage people to shop locally, especially during the run up to Christmas.
MAYBUGS offers a huge array of gifts, home accessories, toys and fashion accessories. Its sister shop, Flowers by MAYBUGS, which is located next door on Vicarage Field in Hailsham, offers fresh flowers and decorations for all kinds of occasions, which are also available for local deliveries.
Davies & Sons Family Butchers in Horam prides itself on sourcing meat of the highest quality from reputable farms in the local area, and its owner Dec Davies was crowned Wealden Hero in 2020 for having worked round the clock throughout the pandemic to ensure that Horam residents could get their essential shopping locally. The shop is now also taking Christmas orders.
The Pumpkin Patch has been in business since 2002 and was recently awarded the Fabric Shop of The Year Award at this year’s London and South East Prestige Awards. It boasts about 1200 bolts of fabrics and also offers sewing and craft work classes for beginners through to advanced.
Nusrat Ghani said: “Wealden is home to so many fantastic, award-winning small businesses which keep our high streets vibrant and bustling, and our communities supplied with high quality food and goods. Small businesses and local high streets are the backbone of our local economy, and I encourage Wealden residents to join me in showing support for our superb small local businesses by visiting our high streets in Hailsham, Crowborough, Uckfield, Mayfield, Wadhurst and Forest Row, and shopping locally, especially during the festive period.”
