As proud winners of Somerset's ‘Exporter of the Year 2009' and second runner-up in the ‘Small Business 1-50 Employees' category, we were this year invited to the Royal Bath & West Show as guests of the Federation of Small Businesses, who organise the awards, in partnership with Somerset Chamber of Commerce. Also invited to have a stand in the FSB marquee were Hippychick, runners-up in the Small Business of the Year category, who sell clothes and accessories for babies and toddlers, and the Ariel Motor Company, makers of the Ariel Atom and winner of Business of the Year 2009 award. As we had limited space for our stand, we decided to just take a few products to demonstrate the range, and concentrate our time on talking to our customers rather than selling, as well as handing out the ever popular freebies!

The weather over the four days was beautiful and this helped to pull in record crowds. We were delighted to receive a bronze award for our marquee in the ‘non-agricultural' category and celebrated in style with ice creams! The Ariel Atom on display in the marquee was a huge crowd-puller and the FSB members did a great job selling raffle tickets for CLIC (Cancer & Leukemia in Children), with the top prize being a ride on a racetrack in the Atom, as well as several bottle of wine and prizes donated by Hilton Herbs and Hippychick.

Overall we had great interest in our products and everybody went away happy with catalogues and a 15% ‘first order' discount, as well as free shampoos and the furry 'bugs' which as usual disappeared like hotcakes! It was great to meet so many customers, both old and new and also the many dogs who visited the stand. We really enjoyed sharing the marquee with our fellow business award winners and hope to be back again next year!!

Martin & Clare on the stand at the Bath & West