Press Room: 06 Jul 10
Gift of the Year judge is truly ‘Great’
Yvonne Carr scoops two awards
The Scottish jewellery and gift retailer Ortak has scooped two awards including the title 'Best Multiple Retailer of Gifts' as well as the coveted ‘Gift Retailer of the Year’ in the 2010 Greats Retail Awards organised by Max Publishing.
The company which has 15 shops, 13 in Scotland and two in Northern England beat off stiff competition from around the country to win this prestigious award.
Its retail director, Yvonne Carr, who is also a Gift of the Year judge, said she was both surprised and delighted to have been chosen. She puts Ortak’s success down to the fact that the company has recently opened two new shops in high profile locations in Glasgow and Sterling, which give a completely new slant to selling both jewellery and gifts.
“We are very different from a traditional gift shop and from a traditional jewellers in that we strive very hard to have a fifty-fifty mix of products. If we have two windows one will be jewellery and the other gifts, each product group has equal prominence. Unlike most jewellery retailers, we also display our jewellery in collections rather than in categories which encourages our customers to go for a complete look rather than simply a ring or a pendant,” she told giftwrap.
Ortak also strives to offer a complete gift package. “At least 70% of what we sell is bought as a gift and we like to think we cover, not only every occasion, but also everything our customer’s need for that occasion – the gift, the card, the bag and a complementary wrapping service – so that when they leave the shop their gift is all ready to be presented and this is a real plus for busy working women,” she says.
Ortak is also unusual in that it designs and manufactures all its own jewellery ranges which it also wholesales to other retailers.
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