Barry Patel, who owns three Nisa Local stores in Luton and Oxford, says February has been great for business so far and Valentine’s Day was a big hit in his stores. 

“We’ve been very busy with Valentine’s Day. We sold out of flowers on the day and we’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Often it’s the way that you have one busy week and the following week is quieter but on the whole we’ve been on the increase from January.

”The next thing to think about is Mother’s Day. We’ve got some heart shaped boxes of chocolates left over from Valentine’s Day but we can always keep selling these through for Mother’s Day luckily!

”Our other big focus at the moment is we’re looking at different hot food concepts and trialling different ideas. My staff will be going to the Country Choice warehouse on Feb 28 to learn about the new concepts they’ve created so that will be a really good opportunity.”