Hi and Happy New Year to everyone...

Big news this month so let's move on.

1. Renewal of the shop's floor
2. 150 Club
3. Recipe Book and other Thriplow gift items
4. Financial Performance in 2012
5. The Floor of the Shop will be replaced soon.

Quite a few of the tiles that were laid in the shop many years ago are coming up because of water leakages and this is not good for a number of reasons. We are going to replace the entire floor with something a little more durable - this is an ambitious project! It will happen over a couple of weekends in the near future, and we will do half of the shop each weekend. This requires that half of the shop is cleared so the fitters can get to all of the floor area they are working on that weekend. Of course this will mean a considerable amount of disruption for staff, volunteers and customers so we hope you will bear with us. We are planning that the first weekend will be 26-27th January and the second weekend will be the one afterwards - 2nd and 3rd February. We will most likely be in a bit of a mess in the week between these dates, and we will not have our full range of stock on display - if you want anything that you can't see, please ask, we may have moved it. We sincerely hope to be open for our normal hours but it might be that we decant the selling of newspapers on Sundays into the garage - hopefully the worst of the cold weather will be over by then. It should all be worth it in the end.

2. 150 Club Draw

Winners in the December Draw were Caroline Shaw, Margaret Parkinson, the shop and Gill Aldred. Congratulations to all. If you would like a number for the remaining 10 draws this year, it will cost you £12.50 - just ask in the shop and they will tell you which numbers are available. The next draw will be in the pub on 24th January, next Thursday.

3. Thriplow Gift Ideas

Many of you will have seen the Thriplow Recipe Book in the shop, and very nice it is too. If you want one of these, it would be good to buy it now as we expect to sell quite a few at Daffodil Weekend. The same applies for the coasters and fridge magnets. We can probably get more of all of these if there is continuing demand. And don't forget to have a look at the Jubilee Photo that is in the shop, we need just a few more people to be identified and then we can take orders. So if you were there on the day, please see if you know any of the unidentified faces.

The unsold Christmas items remaining over will be storage soon so again, if you want anything in preparation for next year, please get them now.

4. Shop Performance

Overall in 2012, we were 14% up on the previous year's takings and this represents good growth, and allows us to do improvements like the floor replacement etc. We are so happy that so many people use the shop, and lots of people tell us what a nice place it is. Our takings are 75% higher than they were in 2007 and although some of this is due to inflation, it is clear that we have grown considerably. Thanks to everyone who has helped us and to our loyal customers, we couldn't do it without you!

TVSA