Baan Thai is the ‘Most Loved Business’ in Guernsey, Avant Garden are the UK’s No. 1 furniture shop and Pavillion Interiors are Britain’s favourite interior designers, according to the massive nationwide ‘14 DAYS OF LOVE’ campaign run by TheBestOf to find the best local businesses in towns and cities across the UK.
The results of the campaign reveal that Baan Thai is the 'Most Loved Business' in Guernsey after 170 people posted testimonials and recommendations for them on The Best of Guernsey website.
The recommendations bestowed on Baan Thai included praise for their ‘friendly welcome’, ‘authentic fresh food’ ‘homely atmosphere’, ‘versatility’, ‘reasonable prices’ and ‘great service’ as well as being, ‘a great family business’, and for serving ‘The best Thai food outside of Thailand’.
“We would like to thank all of our clients for their truly inspirational feedback and support. The responses have been overwhelming and our team is very grateful. We try our best to bring the unique taste and friendliness of Thailand to Guernsey and are happy that clients enjoy the experience as much as we do. Thanks to The Best of Guernsey team, for giving us the encouragement to participate and for their professional organisation,” say Baan Thai Proprietors, Stuart Mauger and Kuhn Saitong.
“Small business owners have kept our economy going over the last couple of years. They employ so many of our island workforce, provide services that we all use and can have a massive impact on our quality of life. We wanted to give people the chance to throw the spotlight on these superb small businesses – and they have!” says Kate Heywood (TBOG).
Local businesses have also fared extremely well as the ‘most loved’ in their categories in the whole of the UK. As well as ‘Avant Garden’ and ‘Pavillion’ coming out top in furniture and interior design, the following were also listed in the top five for other relevant categories; ‘Sueco’, ‘Bonboniera’, ‘Equilibrium Massage Therapy’, ‘A+ Accounting’, ‘Ian Brown’s Cycle Shop’, ‘Focus HR Solutions’, ‘OSA Recruitment’, ‘Channel Island Skills Academy’, ‘Baan Thai’, ‘Bowditch Fitness & Nutrition’, ‘Ritual Beauty’ and ‘Pierrine Jewellery’.
“For any Guernsey company to get listed in the top five in their category for the whole of the UK is a real achievement,” says Kate. “Many of the areas represented are a lot bigger than us so it’s a real testament to how highly regarded they are by their customers.”
All testimonials posted from 1 March 2010 up until 14 February 2011 were added to the website’s Love-O-Meter which ultimately decided who the ‘Most Loved’ businesses are, both locally and nationally. Thousands of testimonials flooded in from the length and breadth of the UK, CI and IOM. Over 1200 testimonials alone were provided for local businesses from grateful and appreciative islanders for some of their favourite Guernsey businesses.
From all those who posted testimonials, we even had one Guernsey person who won one of the daily national prizes during the campaign - Lisa Norman won a year’s supply of Ben Le Prevost Chocolates. The Best of Guernsey also gave away a £200 voucher to another lucky Guernsey ‘lover’ who posted a recommendation before midnight on Valentine’s Day. The winner, picked at random, was Shona Darling who provided a testimonial for Ritual Beauty and chose to use the voucher with Best of Guernsey Business Member, Fletcher Sports.
Thank you to all those who took time to support local businesses.
The ‘Top 20 Most Loved Businesses’ on The Best of Guernsey are:
