THE new owners of a popular food, clothing and giftware shop and café are already considering big expansion plans for the business.

Mike Clark and his co-director, Gay Penn, took over the Country Harvest shop, on the outskirts of Ingleton, back in August.

They have since made changes within the shop, introducing new product lines and taking over the lease of the café, Harvest Bites, when it came up for renewal.

The business is now preparing for one of its busiest periods in the run-up to Christmas, but after that Mr Clark said they would consider major expansion proposals.

Country Harvest has planning permission to extend the retail floorspace by 40 per cent, but given the uncertainty facing the economy at present, Mr Clark said they would make a decision early in the New Year on whether to press ahead with the project.

Building such a large extension would represent a significant investment by the owners, but it would also give them considerably more floorspace to stock a wider range of food and gifts.