A Cheshire florist has been named among the best in the country in the national industry awards.
Wild Bramble Blooms, based in Beeston, near Tarporley took on the most accomplished florists in England, Scotland and Wales.
And they scooped third place in the “Retail Florist Shop of the Year” category, as part of the British Florist Association (BFA) Awards.
Shop owners Sarah Harry of Chester, and Zoe Hall of Alpraham, met on a floristry training course and took the leap and opened a florist shop together in July 2019.
Wild Bramble Blooms quickly established a strong customer base and social media following and was flourishing as a business before the COVID pandemic hit.
“The pandemic was devastating for us,” said Sarah.
“We had put everything we had into getting our new business going, we were then forced to close and really thought we would lose it all.
“But what was incredible was our customers stayed with us.
“We managed to adapt and focus on online deliveries and click and collect to keep the business alive.”
As part of the awards, held in Leicester in October, Wild Bramble Blooms were up against 10 other finalists in their category, representing the best of floristry shops in Britain.
The British Florist Association, the trade association that represents florists and the floral industry, had more than 8,000 nominations in 11 categories.
Tracy Tomlinson, Association Manager of the British Florist Association, said: “These industry awards remind us of what fantastic BFA member florists we have in the UK.
“The last few months have seen flower prices increase, increased paperwork, last minute weddings and events and fuel shortages, so to have made the effort to complete our criteria, acquire votes and get to the final 10 Retail Florist shop is quite incredible.”
Zoe said: “We are still a relatively new business and this is our first attempt at any awards so we were delighted to be shortlisted amongst the best in the country.
“To then fight off all that incredible competition and come in third was fantastic for us!”
