The judges also praised Dean’s business model, which saw him establish in-house designers, develop a management team committed to meeting his goals and embark on a rapid store roll-out which made it difficult for competitors to respond.

Said Dean: “To get here, I’ve had to overcome some big obstacles – for example, people saying the business model was not sustainable.

“When we started in Wakefield with just one shop we were up against Birthdays – which has just gone into administration a couple of weeks ago – but then they were really strong. “Some of the head honchos came to our shop – I was there and my wife was stacking the shelves – and one of them said: ‘This is nothing special.’

“So now we have 500 ‘nothing special’ stores!”

Town chief executive Nigel Clibbens said: “Everyone at the club and all our supporters will join me in congratulating Dean. It is an award that is really well deserved.”