The community-owned shops sector is going from strength-to-strength with store numbers and sales figures both showing strong, sustained growth.

Sales continued to rise in the last year, up 1.9% on 2013 while average turnover hit £154,687 per shop.

A further 17 new community-owned shops opened their doors over the last year, taking the total number up to 316, according to the Better Form of Business – Community Owned Village Shops 2014 report.

Almost half of the stores also feature a post office and 131 boast in-store cafés.

These stores are manned by a total of 871 paid staff and 8,158 volunteers.

The report is published as part of Community Shops Fortnight 2014 which runs until 29 June.