A NANTWICH farm shop specialising in local produce has been named as Farm Retailer of the Year at the National Farming Awards.

Cheerbrook Farm was presented with the national title at a special ceremony in London last week.

Owners Andrew and Sarah Shufflebotham, who are both 36 and were born on the same day, have a 20-month-old son Jake and another baby on the way.

They were entered into the awards, which are sponsored by the National Farmers Union, by their bank manager.

Andrew said: ""If the bank manager believes in me then I must be doing something right!

"The only way to learn is via other people and that's why I've visited a lot of other shops and butchers to see what they do and use. I can't walk past a shop now without having a look in."

Everything in the Cheerbrook shop is sourced locally, something that he believes gives him the edge over the supermarkets.

He added: "I believe in symbiosis relationships so that's why we try to buy everything as locally as we can.

"All of our beef and lamb comes from farms in Sandbach.

"The farmer who supplies us with our lamb has increased his flock two fold because of the business we provide.

"We give him a premium price for his product and he often says that if it wasn't for our shop he'd have left agriculture years ago.

"The customers appreciate what we do and for that reason we've built up loyal support.

"My family and I were in the pig industry which took a colossal slide. Our business was losing an awful lot of money in a very short space of time."

It was then that he changed tack, setting up the current business six years ago.

The farm has gone to extreme lengths to make sure the food is right, even setting up a 100-strong tasting panel to test all the new products.

NFU President Tim Bennett said: "The National Farming Awards have been designed to promote and reward good business practice and acknowledge the professionalism of the industry.

"They also encourage farmers to think about how they run their business, what difference they have made to the industry and how they are impacting on the environment."