With 30 years of experience this about us may be quite a read…

The business was started by John (jack) Purdie in 1985. During spells working in the coal and steel industries John also ran a local darts league in the Wrexham area and found it difficult to buy trophies at the end of each season so realised that there was potential for a small business.

John left the heavy industries of coal and steel behind and went to work for an engraver in Wrexham where he started to learn how to use engraving equipment. After a couple of years John was head hunted by two local entrepreneurs who had recently set up their own sports shop business but wanted to expand it into the trophy market. John moved across to the new business and helped to run a very successful local sports shop until he felt it was time to go it alone in July 1985.

It was a huge gamble at the time with a young family and no guarantee of where the next order would come from, John made the leap into self–employment and never looked back. The business has been an ever present feature on the landscape for 30 years. Everyone has heard of it and everyone locally knows where it is located.

During 2013/14 John suffered some health problem and was told by his doctor he needed to take it a little easier as he has passed his 70 birthday and after much deliberation and soul searching John decided to sell up and retire.

Along came the new owner in Allan Taylor who took over the reins at the end of March 2015 and incorporated the Charisma Trophies business into a limited company. Allan comes from a background of Industry having worked in the clothing industry as an engineer for some years before moving on into the training sector where he worked for a number of years both with adults and young people. For the past 20 years or so he had been employed in the public sector where he worked for Wrexham County Borough Council in a number of positions becoming their Business Support Manager in 2009 with a team of over 20 where he remained until he left that post in March this year to take over at Charisma.

Since Allan took over there has been a number of significant changes made internally in the shop and he is keen to develop new ideas for the future as well as maintaining his existing customer base. He said recently that customers to date have been fantastic in continuing to support him as they had done so with John for so many years before.

Everyone has been great since I took over from John, he said the people are wonderful and make you feel very welcome.

I have always enjoyed talking to people and in my past role with the local authority this gave me the opportunity to carry on doing so just with a different group of people and selling something different from Wrexham as a place to live work and run a business.

As part of Allan’s plans going forward technology will play a major part in the next phase of the businesses future development. Social Media and the web is very much a priority for the business along with other technology to enhance customer experience and satisfaction going forward.

One area of development that has already been introduced is Crown Green Bowling, the business now stocks bowls and bowling accessories from some of the best well-known brands in the shop, namely Thomas Taylor, Drakes Pride and more recently has added Steven s Bowls to the range that can be purchased through the shop.