A regional daily is pushing for a retail giant to sell cutlery made on its patch at its flagship store.

Sheffield daily The Star wants John Lewis to stock Sheffield cutlery at its city centre Barker’s Pool shop, and not just online as is currently the case.

Last week Star business editor David Walsh reported on an initial call by Sheffield man Jeremy Biggin, who wrote to John Lewis chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield expressing his disappointment at the lack of local tableware being sold there.

Yesterday, the newspaper launched its own campaign with a front page plea to the company.

In a piece explaining the campaign, Star editor Nancy Fielder wrote: “Now let’s be clear from the outset, you don’t have to be a commercial whizz to realise that it will make money. We’re talking about selling Sheffield stuff to Sheffielders. Open goal?

“Well, I think so, which makes me wonder why on earth John Lewis haven’t realised the same. Perhaps they will now. Now it has been brought to the attention, it would be ridiculous to ignore the sage advice of Jeremy Biggin.

“I was surprised to realise that John Lewis doesn’t stock any Sheffield cutlery in their Steel City store. It remains the best quality so I’d have thought any shop with pride in the quality of their products would have it proudly displayed. To sell it online but not right here is bonkers.”

Nancy went on to praise “wonderful” independent traders in the city stocking Sheffield steel products, arguing that big retailers also needed to “bang the drum” for the city.

She added: “They make a lot of money here without any sign of investment in a new store, or even confirmation of the promised facelift. The least they can do is sell a few pieces of cutlery for us, or create a Made In Sheffield display.

“So how about it John Lewis? It’s nice to give something back, particularly at this time of year.”