Pat Candy The Kitchen Shop
Patricia Celebrates 25 Years
The Kitchen Shop in Foss Street, Dartmouth celebrates its 25th Anniversary on 1st May and Patricia Candy the owner is planning to celebrate! These celebrations will coincide with the Music Festival and each day there will be fantastic promotional offers, live music and guest appearances from local chefs.
On Thursday 5th there will be a demonstrations given by Stuart Woolvin from the Dart Marina Hotel, on Friday 6th Michelin Star Chef Darren Brown from Restaurant Angelique will be there to answer your cooking queries from 3pm and on Saturday 7th renowned restauranteur Mitch Tonks will be signing copies of his latest book ‘Fish’ from 2pm.
Pat also decided the anniversary was the ideal opportunity to raise money for a charity particularly close to her heart Macmillan Cancer Support. There will be a Grand Raffle with all proceeds going to Macmillan which will be drawn at 3pm on Saturday 7th and the raffle tickets at £1.00 each can be purchased from The Kitchen Shop. She says, ‘I am so grateful to my suppliers and local traders who have supported me with this and have donated the most wonderful prizes. From meals at local restaurants, clothing vouchers, kitchen equipment, gardening advice, meat voucher, signed print…the list of prizes is extensive and all are certainly worth winning.’
Retailing has been Pat’s passion since leaving school and after being involved in fashion retailing in London for some years she moved to Dartmouth and decided to open her own business. She wanted to provide something useful primarily for the people of Dartmouth and, of course, also something that would appeal to visitors. She saw a gap in the market and The Kitchen Shop was born. Pat acknowledges that she is very lucky to have huge local support and she also gets asked to send things all over the world. Trading has changed dramatically over this time. Not only have customer’s expectations increased but internet trading has also had an impact. Pat aims to provide high quality merchandise which is, perhaps, just that little bit different at very competitive prices.
To do this she travels and buys in Europe to source new trends and styles. Pat will tell you that you certainly cannot afford to rest on your laurels, you need to work hard at your business to get better all the time. She enjoys producing the eye-catching window displays and her modus operandi has certainly worked and, as she says, the only other shops in Foss Street that remain from when she opened are Simon Drew and House of Hawkins. Pat loves trading from Foss Street and is quick to acknowledge that she could not have done it all on her own. Di Lock has worked with Pat for many years and Jenny Chadfield has recently joined them and together they make a brilliant team.
Pat says ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank my team and my hugely supportive customers – I couldn’t have done this without them!’
First published May 2011 By the Dart
