Roys of Wroxham TikTok video prompts interest in Norfolk business

The boss of a family chain of village stores has said a viral video that has clocked up 2.8 million views has brought it to the attention of a “new generation of people” from as far afield as Canada and Croatia.

A TikTok video by content creator Gareth Clarke showed how baffled he was by the number of shops called Roys in a tourist hotspot on the Norfolk Broads.

Roys of Wroxham comprises of a department store, toy shop, garden centre, DIY shop, food hall, fast food restaurant and car parks which line the main road in the small village.

“The way Gareth put it together was just art – we thought it was brilliant,” said the company’s Paul Roy.

“We’re hugely appreciative and we thank him for what he’s done in terms of trying to get us out of the region, which we’ve been trying to for 130 years to do.

“It reached way beyond what we might have expected – we have seen an uptick in business off the back of it.”

Mr Clarke is due to meet Roys shoppers in-store on 12 October, following the success of the video.

The video by Mr Clarke, who goes by garfunklez on TikTok, pokes gentle fun at the takeover by Roys, with the shops actually based in the village of Hoveton rather than neighbouring Wroxham.

The 29-year-old, who lives in London and works as a motion designer, stumbled across village with his friend Mel while visiting Norfolk for a wedding.

He remarks in the video: “All of the shops are named after Roy and we’re very confused.

“Why is everything in this village called Roys?”

Mr Clarke told the BBC: “It was just a fun little thing that we thought was quite weird and quite culty because we’re from London… and coming to this little village where everything has the same name.

“It felt like we were stepping into the other reality as you couldn’t get away from it.”

The video has clocked up nearly 195,000 likes, and Mr Clarke said he had “no idea it would take off in in the way it did”.

Roys was founded by brothers Alfred and Arnold Roy in 1895 when they took over a village store in neighbouring Coltishall.

During the 1920s and 1930s Wroxham became known as the capital of the Broads due to the number of holidaymakers flocking to the area and Roys won a competition, clinching the world’s largest village store title – a reputation that still endures locally today.

Marketing and buying director Mr Roy said he and his brother Ed were the third generation of brothers to run the company.

He said Roys had only enjoyed similar national attention once before when Arnold Roy Junior appeared on a prime time BBC radio show in 1938.

The store’s heritage has since prompted a follow-up video by Mr Clarke, who has taken a deeper look at the company’s roots, and has been amazed by the overall response to his focus on the village stores.

“I was in a club the other night and people were coming up to me going ‘You’re the Roys guy’ – it’s something I never thought I’d be associated with in my life,” he joked.