AN award-winning shop is being forced to close because of competition from retail giants in Trafford.

The Crown of Wild Olive shop on Flixton Road, Urmston, which sells furniture and household accessories, has suffered a dramatic reversal of fortune in the last 12 months.

Two years ago, business was booming and the classy store won the designer shop of the year award from City Life magazine.

Now, it is holding a closing down sale after turnover halved in the past year.

Its owner, Denise Patton, says competition from the Trafford Centre and large, national retailers are to blame for its demise.

She said: "When we first opened four years ago, we knew about the plans for the Trafford Centre, but we thought we could ride it out.

"When it first opened, it didn't seem to affect us. Our customers said they hadn't been there yet. But then people gradually started falling away.

"They go there for a day out, and then they don't have money left to spend with us."

Denise said large companies had also affected them by offering customers interest-free credit.

She said: "We just can't compete when big furniture stores make ludicrous offers like these.

"We make and design our own furniture, so some of our stock is exclusive to us, but we are only a small shop. We are being crushed by the big boys."

Denise also expressed her anger at the "free advertising" provided for the Trafford Centre by programmes such as Shopping City.

She said: "The Trafford Centre is so big and rich that it can easily afford to pay for advertising but it doesn't need to, while a small shop like this has to pay to advertise. It doesn't seem fair."

Denise feels the rise in house prices has also hit them hard. She said: "People seem to be buying houses that they can't really afford, and then they have very little money left to spend on furnishings.

"I could just about scrape a living if I carried on, but there really isn't a future for this sort of shop in Urmston.

"Only cheap shops which aren't competing with the retail giants can survive."

Cllr Bill Clarke, chairman of the Urmston Town Centre Partnership, expressed surprise at the shop's decline.

He said: "The other shops in the town centre don't feel that the Trafford Centre has had much of an effect, but they are mostly convenience stores which are not in direct competition with the Trafford Centre.

"We only have one empty shop at the moment, and business is improving in Urmston. There are a lot of positive things happening in the town at the moment."

The shop will be closing later this month. Denise said she will be going on to do something "completely different."

She added: "I hope Urmston survives. I've got no bitterness towards the council - they are doing their best to raise the profile of the area.

"It's the central government who should be looking at the problem. I'm sure it's a nationwide issue."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.