Jeremy DeVito and Vonda Hazzard, co-owners of NovelTea Bookstore Café, were all smiles on Friday after learning their business had been named recipient of the Truro and Colchester Chamber of Commerce’s New Small Business Award for 2015. The award ceremonies are set for Oct. 12.
NovelTea Bookstore Café, at the corner of Prince and Pleasant Streets, opened June 12, 2014 and then expanded to form an L-shaped interior last spring. The business serves as both a traditional café that also specializes in lattes, café mochas and a bookstore and reading space.
“I was really happy, very pleased,” said café co-owner Jeremy DeVito of the Chamber award. “Truro’s been really good to us, very supportive. It was nice to get that news this morning.”
DeVito owns the business along with his wife Natasha and business partner Vonda Hazzard.
He said the award, which he only learned of Friday morning, came rather unexpectedly.
“It isn’t something that was really on the radar for us. I had heard about a week and a half ago that we were nominated for something but I didn’t know what,” DeVito said.
Other chamber award recipients include:
- Small Business Achievement - Forbes Bros. Furniture of Denmark;
- Business Innovator of the Year, Enchanted Forest, Truro;
- Exporter of the Year, Woodmaster Tools of Canada, Clifton;
- Excellence in Community Development (a new category this year): 100 Women Who Care Truro.
The five awards are sponsored by WBLI Chartered Accountants, PWC, RBC, Nova Scotia Business Inc. and the Town of Truro.
All recipients are to be honoured at this year’s Small Business Week annual luncheon on Oct. 21, at noon at the Holiday Inn and Conference Centre.
Guest speaker is Laurel Broten, president and CEO of Nova Scotia Business Inc., the business-development agency for the province of Nova Scotia.
To reserve seats for the luncheon, contact the chamber office at 902-895-6328 or email [email protected]. Tickets are $25 for chamber members and $35 for non-members.
A schedule of chamber-hosted events and details on other Small Business Week events in the area will be posted on the chamber’s website and Facebook page.
