Pendle businesses have joined forces to show their support to a new campaign promoting the importance of shopping locally.
Small business champion Jonathan Frank has this week launched “Buy Local” in the hope it will encourage the public to purchase more goods and use more services from independent stores.
Mr Frank, who runs TaxAssist Accountants, in Church Street, Colne, has supplied local independent shops with stickers as part of his campaign.
He said: “We are a small local business ourselves and understand the important of supporting our small business community.
“The past few years have been a difficult time for businesses, therefore it is important for local people and businesses to support one another by taking advantage of the great services we have on our doorstep.
“The stickers fit with other town centre initiatives such as the loyalty card scheme, all aimed at keeping the town centre vibrant. We want to encourage local business connections and promote businesses to each other.”
Mr Frank has already received plenty of support from businesses in the area, including About Coffee, The Bookshop, Almaine Co., The Sewing Box , Braithwaites Interiors and Colne Opticians.
Colin Unwin, from About Coffee said: “This campaign coincides with something we do as a business policy — we buy as much as we can locally.”
Mark Bateman, from The Bookshop said: “Places like The Bookshop offer a service which in some ways Amazon and supermarkets can’t.
“At the end of the day, people do make a choice. If they want a town centre then they have to use the shops some of the time.
“I, like most people, do use supermarkets but I also shop in the centre of Colne and in the market.”
And Noel Finucane, from Almaine Co Electricals, added: “People should ‘Buy Local’ to keep little shops open in the town centre — otherwise they will end up with ghost towns.”
Any businesses wanting to find out more about Mr Frank’s campaign are asked to drop into TaxAssist Accountants office.