Laura King is excitedly putting the final touches to her new artisan Italian food shop which opens for the first time this Saturday.

Italian Kitchen’s opening in Arbory Street, Castletown, coincides with the town’s Festival.

Yorkshirewoman Laura has an affinity with Italy dating back to when she spent some time on an olive oil farm in San Gimignano, an Italian hill town in Tuscany, southwest of Florence.

Laura, 36, is the mother of 21 months old Toby.

She owns Italian Kitchen with her husband Ross and is delighted to have started the venture following her travels in Italy.

She told the Manx Independent: ’I have always loved Italian food but when I spent time in Italy I discovered what true Italian cooking really tastes like.

’I moved to the island in 2015 when I met my husband, who grew up in Port Erin, but discovered I couldn’t find some of my favourite ingredients here.

’I began to buy them and slowly I have developed a customer base and now we have had so much fantastic support that we have decided to open a shop.

’We chose Castletown because we have held a number of really successful market days in the town and received some wonderful feedback from our customers.

’So many people asked if we would open a deli that we decided to go ahead and take the plunge!’

Colin Leather, chairman of Castletown Commissioners, said: ’I am delighted to welcome yet another high-quality business to Castletown.

’The unique Italian food range that is on offer will be another fantastic choice for the shoppers that come to Castletown.

’It is extremely fitting that the shop opens on Castletown Festival Day as it will be a day of celebrations for Laura too.

’Castletown Commissioners wish her every success in her new venture.’

Italian Kitchen’s launch day is taking place at the same time as the Castletown Carnival, which is set to be a jam-packed, fun filled day for the whole family with a food court, craft stalls, children’s rides and entertainment.

Rachael Keyes, chairman of the Castletown Festival Committee said: ’This year’s festival hopes for a fun family day and night for everyone to enjoy and bring the community together with music, entertainment and activities.

’We wish Italian Kitchen every success.’

The carnival begins at 1pm and Laura is looking forward to people seeing what the shop has to offer.

She says Italian Kitchen will be the place to find an ’exciting and diverse range of artisan Italian products from high quality pasta and pasta sauces, olive oils and balsamic vinegars, antipasti, cooking ingredients and flours, condiments, honey and preserves, biscuits and confectionary, coffee and soft drinks, risotto, soups and seasonal gifts too.

She said: ’Also available are 10 exciting flavours of gelato and sorbets that we have sourced from Venice, and specialist meats and cheeses from across Italy which you can use in your cooking.’

Italian Kitchen will also provide a bespoke gifting service, where people can choose your own products and have them packed into a contemporary gift box and sent to friends and family for special occasions.

’We include a special, wax-sealed envelope with a hand-written message too.’

Laura has previously worked in various occupations. She was once a budding journalist in West Yorkshire before moving on to sales and recruitment and then education. She has many plans to develop the business as it hopefully expands.