Four years ago Primadonna opened a specialist clothing shop to Emlyn Walk, in Newport city centre, seeing the potential of the city and they are still going from strength to strength.

Under the leadership of owner Melanie Bishop, Primadonna has been a real success story and recently, following many requests from customers, unveiled its exclusively designed and made Anna Sara range of dresses.

Over the past four years the business model has expanded. In tandem with Lorraine Daly, of Unique Petals, Primadonna now provides wedding floristry services. It also offers evening and weekend appointments, to help meet the needs of its customers.

Daniel Smith, director of M4 Property Consultants, which acted on behalf of Kingsway Shopping Centre in the letting to Primadonna, recently revisited the shop to help it celebrate its fourth anniversary.

He said: “It was great to visit Primadonna and see the business still thriving in Newport. Primadonna were quick to cease the opportunity to secure the unit, and have been reaping the rewards ever since. Despite the troubles that Newport has faced in recent years Mel has made a real success of the business.

"With the Friars walk completion date on the horizon and the increased positivity, we believe footfall in the city centre will increase and that can only benefit business’s like Primadonna. We have some similar units to let on Emlyn Walk and are keen to secure other tenants keen to work hard to make their shop a real success.”

Melanie Bishop said: “It has been a fantastic four years since moving the business to Newport. We have been working hard to ensure we meet our customer needs and designing and making our own dresses is our latest move in doing this. We are really pleased how well this has gone and hope that this proves to continue to be popular in the longer term. We’ve had a great experience in Newport so far and hope that other local businesses will be as confident as us about the city centre."