Tettenhall woman wins prestigious business award after 22 years
A Tettenhall shop run by a mother and daughter has won a prestigious award – "like the Oscars" of retail.
Hugs & Kisses, an independent card and gift shop run by Caroline Ranwell with the help of her daughter Katie, recently won a Retas award.
Launched by Progressive Greetings magazine as an annual awards programme in 2005, the Retas celebrates retailers both large and small in the greeting card industry.
Beginning the summer of 2000, Caroline's business has been going strong for 22 years, and was awarded the 'best independent greeting card retailer in Wales and the Midlands.'
"This is a really big deal for us," Caroline said, "It's like the Oscars for the gift shop world!"
Before she owned her own business, Caroline was a card sales rep, selling greetings cards to other shops.
"Katie left school and wanted to do what I was doing," Caroline said, "but unfortunately, people her age in that kind of job don't get taken seriously. But my daughter has grown up in that industry, so I decided to open a little card shop in Merry Hill for her."
"My daughter and I have always run the shop together – apart from one year when she worked somewhere else, which was the best thing because she soon came back!" she joked.
After Caroline's lease for the Merry Hill branch ended, she decided to open a boutique clothing shop 300 yards from the site in Upper Green, Tettenhall.
She said: "We were selling clothing in the Tettenhall shop for about a year before lockdown, and during lockdown it sold really well on our Facebook group."
The group, called Number 43 Clothing & Handbags at Hugs & Kisses, has over 6,500 members.
Last year, Hugs & Kisses was one of the finalists of the Retas awards, and this year, achieved the title.
The 57-year-old said: "It was a lovely awards ceremony. I didn't cry when I went up to get the award, but I did for about half an hour when I sat back down!"
