NORTHERN LIGHTS, of Harrogate, has beaten off 40 other PR and marketing companies to clinch a consultancy deal with Champagne Warehouse.

And naturally, Victoria Tomlinson, managing director of Northern Lights PR, has been celebrating with a few glasses of bubbly.

She was joined in toasting the new connection by Champagne Warehouse directors Alan Swain and Tony Stones.

What clinched the contract for the Harrogate agency, said Mr Stones, was that "they were much more interested in how we were going to be successful as a business than in discussing retainer fees."

Mr Swain said: "We want Northern Lights to help us raise the UK market to the same level of champagne knowledge and confidence as in France.

"In the UK more than 80 per cent of the champagne we drink is from a well-known brand. In France, they only buy 40 per cent from the grand marques."