A BUSINESS owner and town councillor is celebrating six years of trade in the town centre.
Alison Smith, Hexham Town Councillor and owner of eco-friendly homeware store Matthias Winter, is celebrating six years of business.
She opened the business in September 2018 and confirmed she has no intention of stopping.
"I will definitely be carrying on as I love every minute of having the shop," Alison, who became a councillor in 2021, said. "I can’t imagine not being in the shop now and I am so proud that we made it through Brexit, Covid and the cost of living crisis.
"We have amazing customers with such interesting lives and stories to tell. Hexham is a great place to have a shop with lots of shopping options available from independent shops to larger national chains. We also have a great selection of cafes, restaurants and pubs," she added.
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Brexit changed the products Alison stocked, which were initially of Scandinavian origin, eco-friendly and locally-made.
"Brexit largely put paid to the Scandinavian stock but it soon became clear that it was the eco side of things which was proving most popular, particularly the refills of cleaning, body care and UpCircle skincare products and that side of the business has flourished - as have our sales of different fairly traded chocolate," she explained.
The shop is becoming more well-known further afield and regularly sees customers from Newcastle, Durham and Carlisle. It has developed a niche for stocking filler gifts at Christmas and sells locally-made items including gifts and cards.
Matthias Winter accepts inkjet printer cartridges, used stamps and wine corks from the public to be recycled.
"We have been really fortunate to win a few awards including a Prestige Award for North England in 2022 as Homeware Store of the Year. We have won a number of vegan awards and have twice been in the running for a Great British Entrepreneur Award - in 2020 in the Change for Good category and in 2023, we went to London for the finals in the Sustainability category.
"I will always be grateful to the people of Hexham for embracing us and enabling me to continue doing what I love. I hope we can carry on serving the people of Hexham for many more years to come."
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