Last updated at 12:05, Friday, 05 October 2012

Business is blooming for a Maryport fruit and florist shop.

Handle with care: Lyn Wood, owner of the Fruit Bowl in Maryport, prepares to hand over the business to niece Ashleigh Agnew

The Fruit Bowl, on Senhouse Street, is owned by Lyn Wood.

She has been in the business for 27 years and is now preparing to hand over to her niece, Ashleigh Agnew, 19.

Mrs Wood worked for previous owners Sandra and Eric Waling, before she took the business over 21 years ago.

She said: “At that time it was a greengrocers. I did a City and Guilds florist qualification and pushed the florists side, along with cards and little novelties that would go with flowers.

“Two years ago I started an old fashioned sweetie line, Sweet Memories. You have to diversify to keep going.”

However she said she was now getting ready to semi-retire.

Ashleigh has been working alongside her and getting ready to take over the business.

Mrs Wood added: “We don’t have a time set yet but she is already bringing in ideas of her own.”

Both women have retail running through their blood.

Ashleigh’s mother, Lisa, runs the town’s Jazz Hair Salon and Mrs Wood was brought up in and around shops.

Her mother, Alice Oglanby, owned Alice’s Baby Shop on High Street and the family lived behind the shop.

Her father, Brian, opened Teen Scene, a teenage boutique on Senhouse Street, and the family lived in a flat above that shop.

First published at 11:51, Friday, 05 October 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk