What a year Lancashire Makers had in 2020! Back before the first Covid 19 lockdown, I had heard on the Cedar Farm grape vine that The Chapel Gallery in Ormskirk was being abandoned by the council and taken over by an enterprising private partnership, rebranding it as The Chapel- Ormskirk Art House. We expressed interest in opening a second branch of Lancashire Makers there in what was the small gallery shop to work along side our Botanic Road, Churchtown, Southport shop.
Months later, in early August, we finally opened. Both shops were thrilled to welcome customers again after we had spent time and money making both sites safe for our visitors and stewarding members. We still had members shielding or with family shielding so decided to limit our opening days to 3 days a week as we were struggling to have enough members and volunteers to cover the 2 shops. Amazingly, customers were so keen to see us back open that sales did not suffer and as we exist as a "not for profit" CIC, we still managed to cover our costs and our members had better than normal monthly sales, which is always our priority.
Likewise, November lockdown was a blow for us but also a relief as we were ready to take the decision to close anyway on safety grounds. Again, though, our lovely loyal customers made up for this and supported us when we reopened in December, so, no need to worry, we will be back open when the government restrictions are lifted and our directors decide it is safe.
AND.....watch out for us, we may have exciting news soon!
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