The town had two of its retailers named as the best in their field when they attended this year’s Scottish Grocer Awards.

Premier Post Office, within Clyde Shopping Centre, and Whitecrook’s Fleming Gifts Ltd both walked away with top honours at the awards ceremony, hosted by Rory Bremner on March 12.

The famous impressionist joined Steve Conner, national sales and distribution manager for Topps, in presenting the collectables retailer of the year award to Fleming Gifts Ltd.

Iky Ahmed, owner of Fleming Gifts, told the Post: “It’s fantastic to win the top prize for collectables retailer, it’s great motivation to know you’re going in the right direction. The ceremony was in the Hilton and the atmosphere was amazing, very lively.

“I wasn’t really expecting to win, I’ve never done anything like this before but my rep from John Menzies thought the shop had potential.” A spokesman for The Scottish Grocer Awards 2015 said: “The award for collectables retailer of the year was taken by the Fleming Gifts Ltd store in Whitecrook, Clydebank. The awards’ event audience heard how the market for football trading cards and other collectable products is especially strong in Scotland and judges described the Whitecrook store as an Aladdin’s cave of collectables that features eye-catching displays inside and outside the store.” Premiere Post Office won the award for post office retailer of the year.

Natalie Marwaha, who runs the post office with her family, said they were delighted to be recognised at the awards ceremony.

“We’re very proud to have won the award,” she said. “I think they understood that we are a family business and we’re always going out of our way to help the customers and make sure they save money.

“It was our first time going to the award ceremony and we really enjoyed it — it was a good night.” With a range of award categories designed to cover virtually every aspect of independent and convenience retailing, The Scottish Grocer Awards gives the industry an opportunity to celebrate enterprise, commitment, innovation and success.

In each of the contested categories, The scottish Grocer invites all of the award finalists to a celebratory dinner and awards ceremony, where the winner of each category is announced. The remaining finalists are awarded highly commended certificates to display in their shop.