AN INITIATIVE in Leominster is helping to showcasing the best of what the town's businesses have to offer.

Launched in July 2016, Shopping in Leominster is dedicated to raising the town's profile and increasing awareness of the importance of shopping locally.

With 15 retail shops per day closing on our high streets, the group aims to help local businesses to meet the very real challenges to their businesses from on-line outlets, who often have less overheads.

Now their ranks have been swelled by the addition of another business, Bridge Street based Carpenter Goodwin Ltd.

Established since 1996, the company is keen to do more local business and has seen strong growth in its garden machinery, lawn mowers and paint products sales recently.

"Having knowledgeable staff who are product specialists is key to growing local businesses like ours," marketing and website developer Matt Sanders said.

"This is especially true with larger purchases such as ride-on mowers, where we ensure we can offer you products that are right for the job.

"We invested in a more functional new website in 2018, this also allows us to do business to a wider audience which includes local customers, thanks to the increased products and product filter search facility."