Budding entrepreneurs bag space in Newport Market competition
Posted on Tuesday 14th March 2017
Newport City Council Leader Councillor Debbie Wilcox with the winners
Newport Market is set to welcome three new businesses after they won a competition run by Newport City Council in conjunction with Newport Norse.
The competition invited people with business ideas that could work in Newport Market to pitch their idea to a Dragons’ Den style panel. From the many entries received, a dozen were invited to pitch the panel, all vying for stall space on the ground floor level.
Judges chose Cherish Clothing Boutique, run by Catherine Farmer and Ffion Cox, as the overall winner out of a field of 12 finalists.
The two women, who describe themselves in their competition submission as ‘having a passion for fashion’, are keen to attract younger customers into the market with their business idea.
They impressed the judging panel, consisting of Councillor Debbie Wilcox, Leader of Newport City Council, Mr Lyndon Watkins, managing director of Newport Norse and Mr Adrian Evans, Newport BID manager, with their presentation.
Their first place prize of a rent-free stall for 12 months means they can now open a small clothing boutique aiming to win over a wide range of customers including business people, expectant mothers and students.
The two runners-up, who won licence free units for six months, are Jacki Tyler who wants to run a beauty/complementary therapy stall offering nail care treatments, facials, massages, aromatherapy and reflexology, and Pattarika Bankluay who wants to offer customers Thai food ready-meals.
However, the other hopefuls in the competition so impressed the judges that it has been decided they will all be offered incentives to help them get their business ideas off the ground and up-and-running in the historic Newport Market.
Councillor Wilcox said: “This competition has been very successful in attracting new business ideas into Newport Market.
“Congratulations to our three worthy winners, and we hope they will soon be joined by other competition entrants inspired to follow in their footsteps.
“We would like to thank everyone who got involved. The standard of entries was extremely high, and we were very impressed with all those who took part. This competition has shown that Newport has some great entrepreneurs with excellent business ideas.
“Good luck for the future. We wish you all every success, and I look forward to returning shortly and see these new businesses trading successfully in our vibrant Newport Market.”