National pride for business

Coffee shop award

A community hub and coffee shop in East Kilbride is full of beans after being named Scotland’s best.

Calderwood’s Hunter House coffee shop won the top prize at the Scottish Independent Retail Awards after being nominated by loyal customers and reaching the south-west region final.

They were named overall winner and coffee shop of the year at a ceremony in Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza Hotel.

It is run by Calderwood Baptist Church as a community hub and, having taken the building over from South Lanarkshire Council six years ago, serves over 2000 people every month.

“This award is recognition of the impact that we have been able to make in our local community over the past few years and we look forward to being able to continue to serve East Kilbride for many more years,” said coffee shop manager Alison McKendrick.

The shop – which operates as a social enterprise and supports a variety of local charities, is also home to Acoustic Coffee – with live acoustic music at the venue each month.

Alison added: “We were delighted to have been nominated by our incredibly supportive customers but to win the award nationally is an incredible privilege.

“As a community coffee shop, we have been blessed to have many volunteers who serve within the coffee shop in a variety of ways and this award is testimony to their dedication and hard work over the years.

“There were many fantastic coffee shops from all over Scotland named as finalists and we are incredibly grateful to our local community for their support in helping us win this award.”