Seven years later, The Projekt Store has not only weathered the storm it continues to adapt to the times, embracing social media and online shopping as a way of retaining and building its customer base.
And on Friday the designer menswear store was crowned Sutton’s Business of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony.
The business, which was up for three awards, was also named Best Business for Marketing and Social Media at the Sutton Business Excellence Awards at the Holiday Inn Sutton.
DJ and radio personality James Whale, who was compere for the night, said: “Over 200 businesses put themselves forward for the awards but there can only be one winner.”
Guests at the ceremony, organised by Successful Sutton in partnership with Opportunity Sutton and Sutton Chamber of Commerce, heard that the judges had chosen the Projekt Store as overall winner as it had shown itself to be a creative and versatile business.
Collecting the award, store manager Giorgio Podesta said: “This is the only award that I had no idea about, so thank you, it’s amazing.”
“The Projekt originally started seven years ago. Before that it was Troubadour, which had been in the high street for 31 years.
“We have a lot of loyal customers. We rely on our customer base, it’s a big part of who we are.”
He added that the social media award was acknowledgement for the way the business had adopted Twitter and Instagram as part of its day-to-day sales and marketing.
“We do a lot of our business through Instagram and Twitter, it’s very important for us so it’s nice to be acknowledged.”
The close-knit team accepted the awards on behalf of Mr Lawrence who fittingly heard the news via Twitter while on holiday in Dubai.
More information on the award winners can be found at www.suttonbusinessawards.com
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Pic: l-r Tom Gordon, sales assistant, Projekt Store manager Giorgio Podesta, James Robson, project director at CNM Estates, and Leanne Tarvin, Projekt Store