Budding retailers all over the country are being offered the chance to win free shopping centre space as well as dedicated business support to get their ventures off the ground.

The Make Your Mark in Retail competition will see 27 regional winners given two weeks’ free trading in leading UK shopping centres including Lakeside and Metrocentre, Gateshead.
                                                                                             
Ken Ford, an executive director at shopping centre organization The Mall, which is running the competition, said:

“Now is the time for the emerging retail talent of the future. At a time when we are experiencing the highest unemployment for a generation and the high street is changing radically, retail is ripe for change.
 
“The future of retail is going to be shaped by some great new retail businesses and this competition allows ordinary people, who have been made redundant or who have looking for a change in career, to start their business and play their part in moulding the nation’s high streets.”

Regional winners of the competition will get two weeks’ free trading space on a retail merchandising unit while the overall winner will win six months’ space, support from The Mall, personal advice from an Royal Bank of Scotland mentor and free retail training courses.

Last year’s winner was Lisa Gosling, a chef who started a dog bakery business. She said: “I saw a gap in the ever expanding pet market for wholesome healthy treats and food and went for it. I always knew we could make it a success but to have been chosen out of 22 finalists by such an esteemed panel in my first year of trading is little short of amazing.”
 
For more information, or to enter the competition, visit http://www.themall.co.uk/business/mym.aspx

 Crimson Business Ltd. 2010