Trader of the Week: New exotic pet shop opened by father and son!

“Tropical Exotics”, at unit 15 of HTM Business Park, enjoyed its first day of business on Saturday, May 13, and is being run by Russ Draper and son Tom.

It stocks a wide range of reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and more, with an online shop also in the works.

Outside Tropical Exotics on opening day (Image: Russ Draper)

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A grand opening day raffle was also held on Saturday, with the grand prize an animal of your choice plus a full set-up for it (including water and food bowls, and bedding).

Vouchers for the shop worth £200, £100, £50 and £25 were also given to the four other raffle winners.

Inside Tropical Exotics (Image: Russ Draper)

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Russ said: “Saturday was absolutely amazing. The amount of people who showed up was a bit overwhelming; it was really great.

“We received a letter from James Davies, the Vale of Clwyd MP, as well, which we were made up with.

“The raffle went well; we ended up giving out five prizes in the end, because so many people had bought tickets.

“We’ve just sold our first tortoise setup, and the first animal that went was a scorpion, believe it or not. A couple of leopard geckos and snakes have gone, too.

Inside Tropical Exotics (Image: Russ Draper)

“I got a lot of people saying that it’s great to have a pet shop like this back in the area, and that they don’t have to places like Deeside for one instead.”

Russ had previously said that opening an exotic pet shop like this marked the fulfilment of one his son’s dreams.

The store will be open from 10am-6pm every day besides Sunday (10am-2pm).