A BUSINESS born out of a mother and daughter’s passion for hats is celebrating it tenth anniversary.

Simply Devine Hats, in Tadcaster, has grown over the last decade to become an internationally trading business, attracting 80,000 a hits a month to its website.

The business started out as a venture of Liz Devine-Wright who in 2003 expanded her portfolio of personal properties to include her first commercial property.

Through a joint interest in hats she teamed up with her mother Joy, and after a year developing the property, opened Simply Divine. With a vision to take the brand further afield, in 2006 the Simply Devine e-commerce site was launched, with the business now enjoying a global customer database.

In 2009 Pashmina by Simply Devine was introduced. After travelling Nepal for more than a decade and having seen the success of pashminas sold in store, Liz started to import them and now has a trade customer base in the South of England and overseas. In 2011, mum Joy Devine then retired, with Liz buying her out in 2012.

Liz said: “In the current financial climate when we are seeing many high street businesses closing, all the specialist shops are holding their own, and we intend to be one of them”.

To celebrate the anniversary Liz had a Simply Devine cake made by Zoe’s Fancy Cakes from Leeds, and Juvina of White Petal Design near York, who makes lasered wedding invitations, was commissioned to design and laser cut the tenth anniversary window display.