Sidford couple will put their own stamp on local post office

NEW owners of Sidford Post Office, Andrew and Suzanne Whitby, plan to put their own stamp on the premises, once they have settled in.

For the young couple, who have a baby son, Arthur, aged 10 months, it is their first venture into running their own business, and they are looking forward to the challenge.

From Warwickshire, both moved to the village nearly four years ago, having been at Cardiff University together.

“Dad died when I was pregnant and that changed everything,” said Suzanne. “We decided it would be good for the family in the future to work for ourselves.”

Andrew has left his job with the Environment Agency to run the Post Office with Suzanne, who said: “It is something we wanted to do, have our own business, so we decided to go for it.”

She said former owners, Roger and Tracey Aplin, had “really helped us” with this week’s changeover.

Customers will notice little difference for now, with cards and stationery still on offer.

“We want to put our stamp on it but not rush to radically do anything,” said Suzanne, who is employing Alison Marchant – former manager of Sidmouth PO – for a day each week.