Salford based gift shop Flock and Gaggle has reached the grand final for England’s Business Awards 2023.

Since opening in the Quayside shopping centre in February this year, the Salford gift shop has already been crowned Manchester’s Best Gift Shop. It is now in the running for a national award.

Owner Nicole Fernandes runs her own illustration business, Fernandes Makes. She started the Flock and Gaggle shop in 2021 as a pop-up shop.

Now, the store has been a permanent fixture on the Quayside since February 2023.

Inside Flock and Gaggle. Credit: Isla Davies

Coming together with Quayside and Salford Loading, the goal is to bring more independent stores to the shopping centre.

“Together we’re trying to build up a community of different shops and makers here,” Nicole added.

Flock and Gaggle is joined in the mall by Studio Dawn and other pop-ups from Manchester artists.

The store stocks 45 local makers, as well as other artists from across the UK.

Nicole explained: “We try and stay loyal to the artists we already had at the very beginning…most of the people in the shop are people I’ve worked with in different markets or different cities.”

 

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As well as stocking a wide variety gifts and trinkets, Flock and Gaggle also run frequently run workshops for all things from pottery to lampshade making.

“It’s about spreading joy and teaching people that anybody can be an artist.”

Already, the store is stocked up with Christmas cards and gifts, and a winter programme of workshops is due to run across December.

To book onto a workshop, you can buy tickets in store or click here.

To vote for Flock and Gaggle in the England’s Business Awards click here.

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