Business gurus will be at the Whitgift Centre this weekend as Croydon's businesses fight back against the downturn.

The Business Expo event will give the public the chance to check out everything from clothes by new designers to locally-produced foods and hand-made soaps.

Budding entrepreneurs will be offered free seminars and networking events, and a new clothing business, Yumi, will be launched with a competition to guess what one of its models, the Croydon Guardian's own Sarah-Jane Lambert, will wear at its first fashion show in September.

Dahlia Anderson, a director of the event, said she expected “a great amount of support”.

She added: “The seminars will have some very prominent speakers and there'll be a massive variety of businesses on display.”

The two-day event will be opened at 9am on Saturday July 25 by the Mayor of Croydon, Margaret Mead and Andrew Pelling, MP. It takes place outside Marks & Spencer and Boots in the Whitgift Centre.

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