Drakes director Monique Hirshman and Drakes store manager Pauline Yearley have been nominated for a local business award in Plymouth that celebrates entrepreneurialism and customer service.
The Herald Business Awards 2013 are being coordinated by Plymouth newspaper The Herald and will culminate in an awards ceremony due to take place on April 25.
Hirshman has been nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year category while Yearley, an ambassador for the store, has been nominated for the Customer Care & Service Award.
Hirshman is the granddaughter of Drakes founder Harry Hirshman. She joined the company as a Saturday girl before going full time in 1985. In 2005 she became a director alongside her brother Andrew Hirshman.
Under Monique Hirshman’s direction, Drakes has grown from two shops to nine stores in the past five-and-a-half years. The Drakes portfolio includes Drakes in Plymouth, No.1 King Street in Truro, Swarovski stores in Plymouth and Bournemouth, and Pandora stores in Plymouth, Exeter, Swindon and Bournemouth. The company is also set to open a Pandora store in Taunton.
Yearley joined Drakes as a teenager in the role of sales assistant, excelling in a customer service role to become Drakes’ first female store manager. She has worked for Drakes for 36 years and recently announced her retirement, set for April 9.
The Herald editor Ian Wood said: “The Herald Business Awards presents Plymouth with an annual opportunity to celebrate and reward the businesses and individuals who are helping to drive this wonderful city forward, economically, culturally and socially, towards its goal of becoming Europe’s premier waterfront destination.
"During the past two years the awards have highlighted the vast range of Plymouth’s enterprises, across the manufacturing and service sectors, and lauded many of the city’s prime success stories."
