THE postmasters at Sherston's Post Office are delighted to have been named as the only store in Wiltshire to make it into the Top 100 stores in the country.

Following weeks of rigorous judging, Paul and Gail Mather, who have been running the store for nearly 12 years, discovered they had made it onto the Independent Achiever's Academy list.

"We are delighted and we told the staff as soon as we found out," Mr Mather said. "We are going to invite them out for a free party on us. It is our job to make sure that the store is in order but it is the staff who provide the customer service and ultimately it is a team effort. If they are happy, we are happy."

The store has to submit an assessment based on 12 different categories which included customer service, availability of stock and staff service. The academy then sent out a mystery shopper to examine the store, followed by a one-and-a-half hour interview.

Mr Mather said: "We were given a date range for the mystery shopper but the deadline passed and we got an email saying the judging process had been delayed and the shopper could come in a few weeks.

"When the chap did come, we were getting a new cooler, so we had a drinks trolley rather than a cooled drinks display and we were getting an air conditioning service but I think he understood, and then politely introduced himself."