Local businesses band together to help Fisherton Street traders

Salisbury accounts Hugh Davies and Company and Bailey’s Domestic Appliances have helped fund an advertising campaign to promote the wide variety of businesses based on the busy Salisbury road.

One-way traffic as part of the ‘Fisherton Gateway Project’ has seen some businesses suffer a drop in trade by up to 50%.

The roadworks, initially scheduled for completion in July, are now anticipated to extend until September, hindering small businesses even further.

At the beginning of April, Salisbury Radio linked-up with white goods store ‘Baileys Domestic Appliances’ to launch an advertising campaign to promote the huge range of shops, eateries and services available on Fisherton Street.  

Damon McNally from Baileys Domestic Appliances which has been operating for 40 years said, “We have definitely been affected by the Gateway Project, but we are very fortunate that, along with a very loyal and supportive customer base, we invested in expanding the reach of our business to surrounding towns and cities during Covid and that has helped us to weather these disruptive roadworks. Many of the other businesses on our street are unfortunately not in the same position.

Damon and the team from Bailey’s turned to Salisbury Radio for assistance.  “We’ve been advertising on Salisbury Radio since its inception”, says Damon. 

“We truly believe in their cause to be a community focused radio station for Salisbury. That's why we turned to David Harber at Salisbury Radio to find out how we could encourage the people of Salisbury and the surrounding areas to return to our street.

"David and his amazing team came up with this fantastic feature to promote Fisherton Street businesses and we are dedicated to assist in promoting our street with them in any way that we can.”

This week, Xeinadin Hugh Davies and Co have joined-in with the combined efforts to help promote Fisherton Street.  Current participants include horologists ‘Chris Wadge Clocks’, opticians and audiologists ‘Mark Jones Eye and Hearing Care’ as well as ‘Hair and Body Shapers’, which was established in Salisbury 30 years ago.

Accountancy and business advisory experts Xeinadin Hugh Davies & Co, located on Brown Street, aims to assist local businesses impacted by the roadworks and who may be struggling to promote their services during this challenging period.

Shirley Hollis, partner at the local firm, added, “Salisbury businesses have been making extraordinary efforts to continue to trade since the Novichok incident followed by the pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis.

“This has always been a great tourist destination and been a lovely place for shopping, but there are now an increasing number of empty shops in the city. The added pressure that the Fisherton Gateway Project is adding to our local traders, could be the last straw for many of these businesses.

“We need to maintain our independent traders in Salisbury so that we can offer a unique shopping experience to visitors to our city.  We feel strongly that it is more important than ever that we support local businesses.”

The advertising campaign is available for a limited number of additional locally-owned businesses on Fisherton Street.  Bona fide local companies are asked to email Salisbury Radio for inclusion in the marketing campaign.

On-air and online features and interviews about the services provided by the range of businesses on Fisherton Street will run until the end of June.

Participants currently include:

Salisbury Radio breakfast show host Craig Hicks said, “On-air we’re talking with people who own businesses on Fisherton Street and it’s sad to hear about the level of disruption the works have had on their trade.

“Many of these businesses have been trading for 15, 20 even 40 years and it’s sad to hear how ‘improvement’ works are causing such huge problems for traders. 

“I hope a little more publicity can get more people to slalom around Fisherton Street, appreciate, admire and make use of the sheer volume and variety of great local traders the road has”.

You can hear representatives from participating businesses talking with Craig Hicks from the Salisbury Radio breakfast show throughout the campaign, starting with Bailey’s Domestic Appliances on Monday 22nd April. 

‘Craig Hicks at Breakfast’ is broadcast from 6.30am - 11am weekdays on Salisbury Radio.