In honour of Buy British Day on 3rd October, we speak with two Manchester-based businesses selling British products.
Buy British Day is coming up on 3rd October, and a great way to support British businesses is to check out the ones on your local high street! We spoke with two Manchester independents, Lesters Nurseryworld in Cheetham Hill and Hill’s Bakery in Hale, to find out why you should be supporting British businesses.
LESTERS NURSERYWORLD – Liran & Michael Bowers
The Background
Lesters Nurseryworld was founded by our parents Marion and David Bowers in 1984. This year we are proud to celebrate our 40th anniversary. As the business has grown so have we as a family and it makes us proud to continue serving new generations and meeting customers whose parents shopped at Lesters when they were starting their family.
Starting a family is an exciting time but it is also daunting and can be confusing for parents- to-be. Websites provide a lot of information, but nothing can compare to seeing, trying, and testing a pram in store with an expert demonstration. There are not many nursery stores that stock all the leading brands, but all our customers can view the products in store and make a true comparison. We also reserve our best prices for our in-store customers and have special offers that cannot be seen online. We stock high quality British brands such as Egg, iCandy, and Silver Cross, allowing you to get the best quality and support British businesses and shopping locally.
Independent vs Chain
It’s the personal level of service that our mum and dad set out before us, that we keep at the heart of the business. We are fortunate to have a caring and dedicated sales team who enjoy meeting parents and grandparents-to-be and being part of their family journey.
We work closely with our brands and often run special in store events with extra offers and free goody bags. All customers at Lesters Nurseryworld have the option to take their purchase home straight away or we offer free storage until the baby is born. All our staff are car seat trained to test and fit in the customer’s car and we offer free local delivery.
HILL’S BAKERY – Janet Hill
The Background
My great-grandmother Mary Helen started the bakery in 1912. However, it does go back further than that. Hill’s Biscuits was a big factory in Ashton Under Lyne. It started off as a grocery confectionary and then expanded. The family lost control of the business in 1906 and my great-grandfather had an accident and died, leaving Mary Helen with six children.
She came to Hale and started the business, and my grandfather was her eldest child, so he took over the reins, and then my father from him, and Ian and I didn’t intend to go into the business, but kind of did by default. So I’m the fourth generation.
We are now the only bakery in Hale and the oldest in the area. Some people do use the word institution to describe us. People are just used to us being here and expect us to be here. But you’re only ever as good as your products. If we weren’t providing good products, then
I don’t think that our history and longevity would make a difference.
Independent vs Chain
We make everything fresh and daily, more or less. 95% of what we sell from bread through to cake and all our sandwiches are made on- site. It’s the idea of using simple ingredients and making something nice. And we have a lot of really nice cakes, some of them are recipes we’ve made for years, and some of them have started more recently. And those are all made from scratch in-house by our bakers.