Best of Guernsey most loved unveiled

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Sueco Outside Catering is the ‘Most Loved’ small business in Guernsey, Avant Garden are the UK’s No. 1 furniture shop and Pavillion Interiors are Britain’s favourite bedroom supplier, according to a massive nationwide search run by TheBestOf to find the best local shops and companies in towns and cities across the UK.

The results of the two week campaign reveal that Sueco is the most loved in Guernsey after 77 people posted testimonials and recommendations for them on The Best of Guernsey, an online business and local information guide.

The recommendations bestowed on Sueco included praise for its ‘professionalism’, ‘well-presented, delicious and original food’ and ‘great service’ as well as it being, ‘a good local family business’, and ‘a business at the heart of the community’.

“The team at Sueco are running a superb business, and should be rightly proud – but what’s been underscored again and again in this campaign is just how many fantastic local businesses there are in Guernsey. These business owners and their staff are the life-blood of our economy and it’s tremendous that they’ve been shown so much appreciation. We’ve been absolutely delighted by the response from local people who wrote 100s of glowing testimonials in support of local businesses”, says Kate Heywood from The Best of Guernsey.

“Small business owners have kept our economy going over the last 18 months. They employ so many of our island workforce, provide services that we all use and can have a massive impact on our quality of life – whether it’s delivering to customers out of hours, calling on older customers to check they’re ok or simply providing a service we would otherwise have to do without. In fact, our recent research showed that one in five people say there is a small local firm they just can’t live without. We wanted to give people the chance to throw the spotlight on these superb small businesses – and they have!”

Local businesses have also fared extremely well as the ‘most loved’ in their categories in the whole of the UK. As well as Avant Garden and Pavillion coming out top in furniture and bedrooms; Sueco, Bowditch Fitness & Nutrition, Oatlands and Pavillion were also listed in the top five for other relevant categories.

‘For any Guernsey company to get listed in the top five in their category for the whole of the UK is a real achievement,’ says Kate. ‘Many of the areas represented are a lot bigger than us so it’s a real testament to how highly regarded they are by their customers.’

The ‘14 Days of Love’ campaign from TheBestOf generated over 138,000 testimonials from the length and breadth of the country. More than 30,000 businesses drawn from almost 400 towns and spanning every business type - from personal trainers, beauty salons, and tourist attractions through to accountants, hotels and funeral directors – all received nominations from grateful and appreciative customers.

The Top 10 most loved small businesses on The Best of Guernsey are:

1 Sueco Outside Catering Ltd

2 Avant Garden

3 Pavillion Home Furnishers

4 Bowditch Fitness & Nutrition

5 The Ambassador Hotel

6 The Day Salon

7 John Thompson Autorestorers

8 Power Yoga

9 Best Friends Pet Services

10 Oatlands