New shop 'optimistic' in downturn

A Dorset businesswoman who opened a shop in the same week the global banking crisis emerged has said she is remaining optimistic about the future.

Andrea Frankham-Hughes, who has dressed windows for Liberty and Harrods in London, recently opened her own bead shop in Weymouth.

"I can't just close my door and say 'there's a recession, I'm not going to do it'," she told the BBC.

She is hoping people will come to the shop to make jewellery for Christmas.

'Through it once'

"The other retailers have said, 'oh, gosh you are very brave to do this', but we were already two, three months down the road of planning, buying, and doing all those things," she told the BBC.

She said she also opened a business during the last recession, in the 1990s.

"My husband and I had a window display and design business, which we started when there were 16% interest rates.

"We built it into a very successful business with over a quarter-of-a-million pound turnover.

"So really, if I've been through it once, and that was a very hard recession, then I think that I'm pretty well situated to hopefully deal with it again."

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Dorset Chamber of Commerce
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