DELUNGRA farmers Craig and Mandy Stoddart were the winners of The Inverell Chamber of Commerce and Industry's major Christmas promotion.

The couple won $5000 in Sapphire City Dollars to spend at participating businesses.

Chamber of Commerce president Robert Ditchfield said the Stoddart's were thrilled with their win.

"They were very worthy winners. They said they had never won anything," Mr Ditchfield said.

While retail spending did not go through the roof during the festive season the final promotion capped of a successful year for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

May 2010 saw an overwhelming attendance to the chamber's annual business awards, then came Inverell's largest advertising spend to promote shopping in Inverell.

The one-day sale of previous years was stepped up to a town wide two and a half day sale.

Overall 2010 was a successful year for the chamber however Mr Ditchfield said it wasn't without challenges.

"The biggest challenge for the year was the opening of BIG W.

“The chamber needed to be proactive in promoting local business and help business adjust to this new retail environment," he said.

Plans are already in place for 2011 to be a big year.

There will be a major revamp to the Christmas promotion and in a bid to get an online presence the chamber will be launching a website.

"The website will hopefully help a lot of small businesses and expose them to a larger market," Mr Ditchfield said.

© 2011 Inverell Times

<< Back