A Major investment into a Brixham town centre shop has proved its weight in gold. Since Roy and Gillian Hakin moved the Brixham Deli from Bolton Street to Fore Street six months ago, business has boomed.

The couple took over Trudi's gift shop and ploughed a six-figure sum into the premises to unveil a sleek new-look specialist deli, cafe and grocery shop.

They have employed extra staff to cope with the increase in footfall, working with a pool of nine part-timers, and will now be open seven days a week throughout the summer season.

"We've been a lot busier since we moved here," Roy said. "Everyone who is visiting Brixham or is already in Brixham will walk past the shop, whereas when we were in Bolton Street visitors maybe saw us but they were driving so they didn't come in."

"The kitchen space here is much bigger and we have big oven facilities which means we are able to roast our own beef and duck, cook our own chicken and make quiches and sausage rolls."

Other fresh produce cooked daily on the premises includes baguettes, pastries, scones, pies and cake.

This year, Roy and Gillian are celebrating a milestone in the history of the premises.

"This building was built 100 years ago and used to be F D Tyrer grocery store," Roy said. "It was famous throughout the South West and provided the trawler fleet with food 50 years ago. One hundred years later it's back to being a grocery and deli."

During their revamp of the shop, Roy and Gillian gave a new lease of life to the coloured leaded glass panels at the top of the windows.

"They had been painted black so we uncovered them," Roy explained. "It looks great. A lot of older locals remember shopping here during the Queen's coronation in 1953 when the windows looked like they do now and people have brought me in photographs of it." The couple also reconditioned the original walk-in fridge that was part of the fittings of Frank Tyrer's original grocery store.

Brixham Deli stocks a range of delicious goodies from Riverford organic cream and milk to jams, preserves and chutneys, herbs, spices, free range eggs, quality ready meals, luxury chocolate, Tyrrells crisps and pasta sauces. It also offers a choice of Sharpham wines, international wines and local beers and cider. The sandwich bar has a mouth-watering menu and you can either take-away or eat in the deli's small seating area, where you can sample the food with a glass of wine or ethically-sourced fresh coffee.

"Not everything we stock is organic but if we can do it we will, and we do stock a lot of fair trade stuff," Roy said. "It is important to buy local but if the quality doesn't add up we won't do it. A lot of local stuff is great and, if the quality is there, we will buy it and support it. Some of our biggest sellers are cheese and ham. About 70 per cent of that is West Country sourced."

"When we are making things in the shop we use as many Brixham products as we can, including vegetables and meat from local suppliers in Fore Street and fresh bread from the Poop Deck. Wherever possible we personally support the local traders, hotel and B&B owners and restaurants. Local economies are only successful when money is generated and then re-generated within the same community."

The deli can also put together themed hamper selections and runs an outside catering service, catering for weddings, corporate events, barbecues, garden parties and birthdays. Last year, Princess Anne was treated to a spread provided by the deli when she opened the new research and development facility at Astra Zeneca.

Roy believes Japanese food is the next big thing, with a lot of people already making their own sushi and sashimi, so he stocks nor (seaweed), wasabi (horseradish) sauce and special sticky rice. "You can't get that stuff anywhere else in Brixham," he said. "There's no point in me competing with supermarket products, it's a different shopping experience. My customers will go to the supermarkets and the supermarket customers will come to me."

Before moving to Brixham three years ago, Roy worked as a retail consultant all over the world, latterly in charge of a billion pound supply chain for B&Q. Gillian had a career in IT. "We wanted a change of life, a change of perspective," Roy explained. "I always thought it would be great to create and design our own specialist food shop. "We thought Brixham was a town to invest in because of the regeneration project going on here and the new fishmarket."

"We've made a lot of great friends here and we really feel part of the community. To me, this community is phenomenal. It's got a real soul and the people that live here and the people that have come to live here love it." Looking forward to a busy summer, Roy said: "If I was walking outside and saw this shop I would think it looked great. "We've got great staff and brilliant customers and we're proud of what we've done."