Hardware and electrical store awarded top spot following Domestic & General survey of independent electrical retailers.
E E Lane & Sons, trading as Lanes of Cheddar, scored 18.59 out of 20, beating runner-up Raff Electrical of Wallington, Surrey, which came a close second with 18.35 points.

The Somerset-based independent was established in 1879 and now includes Casswells of Midsomer Norton - a Home Hardware Centres with a specialist kitchen and bathroom department.

In its 12th year, the Retailer of the Year Awards pooled 21,000 survey responses from customers who have purchased a major electrical or electronic product in the 12 months ended July 2010. Independently administrated by Domestic & General (D&G), the survey asks customers to rate the courtesy and friendliness of the store, the overall appearance of the shop, product demonstration and product knowledge of the staff.

Impressively, for the fourth year in a row, Crampton & Moore scooped the top position in the Internet Retailer category, scoring 18.04 out of 20. In this field, customers who made online purchases were asked to score the product information provided, the appearance and navigation of the site and te conveniece of delivery.

As part of the survey, almost 2,500 high street and online electrical retailers across the UK were rated by consumers.

D&G national accounts director Jeff Griffiths said; "This year's ROTY survey has been the largest and most comprehensive to date and showed once again that the traditional values of independent retailers make a big difference to business on the high street and online. With a single point out of a maximum 20 points separating the top 100 retailers in the survey the competition this year was very close indeed. Clearly, first class customer service is keeping the best independent retailers in healthy business."