A family-run carpets and flooring business that has recently relocated has opened up on its optimism for the festive period ahead.

Grey's Flooring announced that it had relocated from Grey Street in Carlisle to Rosemary Lane in the city centre on November 23 - a move that owner, Kaitlin Rae hopes will help the company with its continued growth.

However, things haven't always been rosey for the business, especially during the winter Covid-19 lockdown when it was deprived of its busiest time of year.

"It was awful for us," said Kaitlin, who took over the running of Grey's from her grandfather, Selwyn Stubbs.

"Christmas is always our busiest time of year, guaranteed. We lost all of that trade."

The decision to move into a bigger premises in the city centre is something that had been in the pipeline for a while, said Kaitlin.

Now, she said the business is looking forward to a period of greater optimism.

Kaitlin added: "We started looking at town centre premises and because of lockdown we couldn't really go any further with it. We left it for a while and when everywhere started opening up again, we realised that there were a lot of empty units in the town centre.

"It's an ideal size for what we needed and what we wanted to do with the place.

"We just thought that if we can afford to do it and move to a bigger and better premises, then it would be a no brainer.

"Since we opened our doors last week, we have had a good amount of customers coming in.

"It is already looking good."

Kaitlin now hopes that Grey's can go on to have a positive impact on a high street that has struggled of late with the closing of big names, like Debenhams.

She said: "It's not just another clothes shop. It's somewhere where people can have a browse and chill out.

"We have a relaxed environment in here. There is a sofa and a coffee machine, so people can sit and just have a look at some of the work that we have done in the past.

"We are supporting the high street [by] bringing something different [to it]."