A Wiltshire dog grooming salon has won big at a prestigious awards ceremony.
L A Dog Groomers, at Mile Elm Farm near Calne, has scooped the prize for Dog Groomer of the Year at the Southern finals of the Animal Star Awards 2024.
Owner Lucy Phillips, who runs the business alongside her best friend Paige Smith, picked up the award at the annual ceremony in Portsmouth on Sunday, May 26.
She said winning the hotly contested regional award was her “proudest achievement” during more than a decade in the industry.
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The 35-year-old added: “It was quite a shock to actually go on and win it, I’m so proud because I’ve been grooming for 14 years, and this is my biggest achievement.
“We didn’t expect to win at all, I hadn’t even prepared a speech, but it’s lovely to have that title and a lot of our customers are really excited as well.
“This means the world to us, and we couldn’t be more proud and grateful for everyone that supports us.”
Ms Phillips said the business has enjoyed a huge reaction on social media since announcing its success.
Earlier this year she told this paper how the groomers was first established as Dog’s Bodies in 2010, before being rebranded as L A Groomers two years ago.
Since then, the salon has enjoyed a rapid growth in trade, and Ms Phillips is hopeful this will be boosted by her latest success.
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She added: “It’s great for business because they selected us by speaking to our customers and looking at our reviews, so it shows we’re the whole package.
“For them to make the decision on the business as a whole is lovely, our social media has gone crazy since and the bookings have increased as well.
“It’s definitely been good for us, and a lot of customers have congratulated us or brought us gifts so we want to say thanks so much to all our wonderful clients.”
L A Dog Groomers is currently in the process of constructing a purpose-built salon at Mile Elm to upgrade the current premises.
It is expected that the new site will be completed within a few months.
The Animal Star Awards has run annually since its creation in 2016 and the prizes are dished out by a panel of industry experts.
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