A Pinchbeck business run by Asgar Dungarwalla and his two daughters has returned to the high street after launching and trading for five years exclusively online.
The Gift Shop is opening this week at 16 Broad Street, Spalding offering a range of more than 3,000 gifts from stock and catalogue.
Its unique selling point is that each gift, ranging from a bottle of champagne to cufflinks to official football club lines from 17 top UK clubs, can be personalised and shipped wherever you want it to go, entirely free of charge.
Hanifa Dungarwalla, who with her sister Sabina started developing an online presence for their dad’s wholesale wines and spirits firm while still at school in 2007, said: “Some people prefer to buy online but there are still a great many who like to go in a shop to buy presents.
“We helped Dad go online with winegifts4u, his first personalised wine gifts business which is still going strong alongside the wholesale business.
“Now all three of us have developed the business much further.
“It started with personalised gift labels on fine wines and champagnes, and widened out to engraving bottles, then items like glasses and lighters, cufflinks and hip flasks.
“Dad came as a boy with his parents as a refugee from Uganda and they were welcomed to Spalding, its our home town.
“Sabina and I both have degrees – I have an MBA – but we did the courses while working locally and both opted to work within the family business.
“Dad had an off-licence in Sheep Market for a short time and now we’ve opted to go back on the high street.”