THE SECOND Retailer of the Year awards evening was held on Monday night and proved to be a magical evening for toy store Little Wonders which claimed the coveted title.

Event co-founders the St Albans and Harpenden Review, St Albans District Council, St Albans Civic Society and St Albans Chamber of Commerce staged a hugely successful evening - proving bigger and better than last year's inaugural event - with retailers rewarded for their hardwork in six different categories.

Review editor Martin Buhagiar opened the ceremony by reiterating the aim of the campaign - to protect the vast array of independent shops, restaurants, cafes, market stalls, boutiques and beauty salons in the district.

He said: "I hope that this competition succeeds in its aim of shining the spotlight on your establishments as well as increasing the footfall in St Albans city centre."

After putting hundreds of individual traders to the test, mystery shoppers voted for their favourites and the difficult task of short-listing entries was left to a committee comprising councillors Roma Mills, Melvyn Teare and Salih Gaygusuz; St Albans Civic Society's Eric Roberts, Sandra Oldfield from St Albans District Chamber of Commerce, council officer Maria Cutler and Review Editor Martin Buhagiar.

The committee selected a shortlist of five and a winner in each of the six categories - specialist shops, fashion and accessories, market trader, cafe and restaurants, hair and beauty and food and drink - before choosing an overall winner.

The judges agreed Little Wonders was a clear winner on the night with chairwoman of the committee, councillor Mills saying: “Its good customer service, attractive window display, interesting range of goods and popularity added up to a winner.”

Andrew Mott opened Little Wonders, a family-run business in The Maltings in 1997.

Andrew, who recently closed a branch in Oxford to focus on the St Albans store, said: "It really is wonderful and I'm serious when I say it does make all the hard work worthwhile - we do what we do for the love of it.

"Because of the challenging times that we are in at the moment, we are living in the moment everyday - it's all about the next small task.

"Tonight all of a sudden you look at the bigger picture and it justifies all the hard work. "We are going against the tide of supermarkets and large multi-national companies.

"When we seem to be running up hill against the tide, it's nice to know it's being appreciated."

Cllr Mills told the Review: "I was delighted with the evening. "We had such a good turn out from the retailers - we had better support than I anticipated. "There was a good vibe in the place.

"Everyone who was nominated has very good customers that really value them and are really loyal to them - everyone's a winner really." During the evening guests tucked into a buffet provided by Kashu, Café Paprika and last year’s Retailer of the Year A&C Meats while being entertained by musicians from St Albans School and the St Albans Band.