Name: Michael Griffiths Hughes

Business: M. G. Hughes Fruit & Veg in Chirk

Opening times: Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm, Saturday from 7.30am until 3pm, closed on Sunday

When did you start your business and why?

I ORIGINALLY opened up my business in Llangollen, and that was back in 1991, and I spent more than 20 years working there. I opened up the shop here in Chirk in 2011 and then the shop in Llangollen closed in 2016.

After opening in Llan, we had a lot of people asking us to open a shop in Chirk, so eventually we decided to do that.

A fruit and veg shop was something I was interested in opening up because I enjoyed cooking and wanted to be a chef initially. My first business was a butchers, and then we started doing fruit and veg stuff with it and it went from there really. That was when I started travelling to places like Liverpool in the mornings to pick up food from the markets there.

Why in this location?

I’m a local lad and Chirk is somewhere I spent a lot of time, and for that reason I’m really fond of Chirk. Since the bank, the surgery and the chemist closed, there has been a slight downfall in the number of customers coming through the village, because all of that has been moved a bit further away, but it’s a great place.

Tell us about your business?

We HAVE fresh and local produce hand-delivered to the shop every day. We also have produce from Liverpool and Birmingham.

Other than fruit and veg, we have local Welsh yoghurts, local Welsh cheese and local Welsh butter, as well as local free-range eggs. We also offer bedding plants and compost for people who are interested in growing food themselves. We are able to advise customers on the best ways to do that too.

We have quite a lot of returning customers, especially recently during the virus outbreak – we have noticed even more local people are using the shop.

Hopefully beyond that, even if a small percentage of new customers continue to come to us, it would be great.

We try to give a good service and deliver quality products, but sometimes it can be hard for us to compete with the big supermarkets in the region.

What is your proudest moment?

I THINK ultimately it was getting my own business. Being my own boss is something I enjoy. I like making my own decisions and it’s nice to not have people telling you what to do in some ways.

The days I opened my stores are memorable for me as well. I remember my grandad telling me that ‘if running your own business was easy, everyone would do it’ – which I can understand.

It’s all about taking chances, which we did.

Any strange requests?

We DON’T have too many, we just have people occasionally asking for organic or exotic fruits really.