The owner of a popular Newtown gift shop says she has been "amazed" by the response from customers to her newly-expanded store which will be selling a larger range of Welsh products.
No 1 High Street's Liz Evans reopened the doors of her town centre shop on Saturday (September 16) after undergoing an expansion into a former butcher shop next door.
"Everybody has been so nice," Liz said. "It’s been a real group effort and it feels really nice that everyone appreciates the hard work.
"Even when I was painting people were stopping to say how amazing it looked and how nice it was to see something positive in town.
"We’ve been so well supported with everything that we’ve done. It never ceases to amaze me. There’s a really good sense of community in Newtown. "
After listening to feedback from loyal customers, the shop is decked out with more products including a new clothes, bags and seasonal accessories section, and it will be doubling the stock of some its popular jewellery brands like Joma before Christmas.
Cosy throws, specially made glassware by Newtown brand Milford Collection, Pig and Pip baby clothes and children's toys including adorable Jellycat soft toys are some of the many items that have been added to the store, as well as a range of homeware, books and cards.
"We’re a Welsh giftshop that’s proud to be Welsh and where possible if we can get in made in Wales it will be made in Wales before anywhere else,” Liz said.
"We all love a bit of choice. But what I’ve tried to do is bring in things so that we can keep changing it all of the time.
"We’re just dipping our toes to see where it goes but we're really being led by our customers because at the end of the day without our customers we wouldn’t be here."
Liz hopes to host more special events at the revamped store including an evening with one of the area’s most popular landscape artists Brian Jones and book signings by local authors.
Former electrician Liz said it took around a month for her store to get ready after gaining planning permission from Powys County Council to knock through into the William Jones & Sons butcher shop which closed on New Year’s Eve after almost 150 years.
Council planners gave the go-ahead earlier this year to allow the popular gift shop to expand into one half of the former butcher shop, leaving the other half nearest to Costa Coffee available for another business to move in.
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