AN ILKLEY store is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a birthday bash for customers, producers and staff.

During the event, on Sunday, April 2, customers will be invited to share cake and bucks fizz and sample a selection of regional produce, including smoked salmon, gingerbread, toffee vodka and craft beer.

There will also be a jazz performance from the Alison Diamond Jazz Band and free face-painting and balloon modelling for kids.

Ilkley store manager Rachel Costello said: "My team and I are very proud to be celebrating twenty years in Ilkley. Chairman Edwin Booth opened this store twenty years ago, having cycled over 60 miles from Hesketh Bank to Ilkley with the then manager Atholl Robertson.

"Some of our team have been here since the beginning, which is a testament to our happy store. There is a fantastic community spirit here and we hope to welcome lots of our shoppers and friends on Sunday to celebrate with us."

Many of the Ilkley staff have been with the store since the beginning. Ilkley’s longest serving member of staff, Melanie Brear, met her husband working at the store.

She said: "The main reason I have stayed with Booths is that I love working for a family business which is part of the local community. I love seeing all the regular customers, some of whom have been around as long as I have. Booths has been a great support to me personally throughout the years and I don’t feel like a number, I am a valued member of the team and so happy to say I am the longest serving member of staff in the store."

The Booths vintage horse and cart and the grocers bike which chairman Edwin Booth cycled on from Hesketh Bank in 1997 will also be on display to mark the occasion.