As Christmas approaches, many will be looking to support local small businesses while picking up something special for someone they love.
Mike Duff and his wife Julie, who set up Liverpool Gift Company, and their bricks and mortar shop Voglio, have the perfect store for this. They first set up shop on Allerton Road back in 2008, and their website followed in 2011.
Mike explained why he thinks having a Liverpool-based company is so special, from the people to the art and culture in the city.
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Mike used to work as a buyer for a department store, and opened Voglio (Italian for 'I want') after being inspired by a friend from Kirby Lonsdale. At first, many of the products were Italian, but since then the shop has evolved, with many products being based around the city.
Mike said: "With a shop, the customers decide what you sell. Looking for stuff for the shop, we found this guy that makes metal sky-lines of major cities like London, Shang Hai, and Seattle at a trade show, and I knew people in Liverpool would love one. I asked him to make one of Liverpool, and he didn't want to at first but I managed to talk him round.
"Selling them at the shop, we sold more of the Liverpool ones than all of the other cities he did put together. That was the first exclusive item we got into the shop, and it was really successful. Unfortunately, he doesn't make them anymore but since then we've stocked a lot more Liverpool-based products and they always do really well."
Mike claims the people and the culture of the city are part of the shop's success.
He said: "I don't think there's many other cities, except maybe Newcastle, where the people love their city and have such a pride in the place they come from. Liverpool people are unique.
"Our shop is a little tiny shop, it's about 600 square feet altogether, so for us to sell more of those metal skylines than all the other cities put together, that tells you something about the people here and how much they love Liverpool.
"The city has two great football teams, the people of the city love the city, and there's plenty of great art and culture, great buildings and creative people. I don't think anywhere else has got that, and we're very lucky in that regard."
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