Mark Berriman a 21 year old entrepreneur from South Shields is cracking open the bubbly in celebration this week after being granted a drinks license by South Tyneside Magistrates - the first North East based company to be granted a license to sell alcohol over the Internet.

Mark is co-owner of Gifts to Drink a web based supplier of luxury gifts based at TEDCO's South Shields business centre. Keeping it in the family, Mark and his father Tony came up with the idea of setting up a website to sell alcoholic gifts after Mark's mother, then an off-license proprietor, had a huge success selling gifts over the counter, direct to the public. The idea was born and the rest is, as they say, history! Mark and his mother are now full-time partners in the successful business.

The company has gone from strength to strength in recent months gaining many large contracts from Blue Chip organisations and marketing agencies, locally, nationally and internationally.

Mark is really looking forward to a bright future for Gifts to Drink and is keen to praise local enterprise agency TEDCO for their support, he says

"This is a really exciting time for our business, TEDCO have provided us with a great deal of support since the business started trading last year. We have been able to develop what was simply a spark of an idea to a fully fledged successful trading business, and we now want to put South Tyneside firmly on the dot.com map!"

Gifts to Drink sell over 400 different types of gift, and can supply a variety of alternatives, including special gift boxes, engraved glasses and personalised labels. Gifts come with a money back guarantee and can be delivered anywhere in the UK within 24 hours.

For more information on the range of gifts or to place your gift order simply click on line at www.gifts2drink.co.uk or telephone 08000 714 438.

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Media Contact: Sue O'Hara, abacus marketing, tel: 0191 216 0166

Photo: (left to right) Janet Berriman, Mark and his father Tony with a range of the different gifts available on the Gifts to Drink website.