Exmouth businesswoman Liz Oram is celebrating winning an award for her company and being invited to Downing Street.

A Withycombe Raleigh single mum is celebrating winning an award and being invited to Downing Street in the first week of launching an on-line business.

Liz Oram, 45, of Kingston Road, recently joined forces with friend Allison Herbert, from Somerset, to create a new start-up company showcasing products made locally in Devon and Somerset.

The business www.love-local.com recently came top out of 120 national entries to win the national Liquid Shop E-commerce Award 2011 at a ceremony in London.

The businesswoman’s fortunes were doubled when they received a rare invitation to Downing Street, where they left a goody bag of local products and gifts for the Prime Minister and his family.

Liz, who set up the company with Allison after the pair were recently made redundant, said: “Dropping the gifts off at Downing Street was the ‘icing on the cake’ to the previous night’s award presentation.”

She said the pair had been ‘chuffed’ to be asked – after being told an invitation was a rarity.

Liz said the gifts, to celebrate localism, had included a bracelet for Samantha Cameron and a book for little Florence.

She said: “It was also fantastic to win a national award for a South West business and talk about a positive economic story in these difficult times.

“Within a very short space of time, we uploaded more than 450 product details from some great producers, as well as worked on a stunning website that will continue to be developed.”

Scooping the LiquidShop Ecommerce Award means the Love-Local company will receive practical and financial assistance for a year to help establish the business.

Competition judge Nick Pratt said the panel had been ‘impressed’ with the amount of research and information Liz and Allison had submitted with their entry.

He said: “It was clear that they knew exactly what they were trying to do and how they would go about it. Working with them to build the LiquidShop site has been an enjoyable process.”

“We are delighted, not just to be supporting Love-Local, but also all the designers and makers based in Somerset and Devon who will be using the website to sell products.”