SUPPLIES

Professional catering equipment supplier Nisbets celebrated the opening of its third Scottish and 20th UK store in Shiprow, Aberdeen, yesterday.

The Bristol-based company aims to tap into the Granite City’s “mass appeal” and an eventual return to a better local economic climate

Founding owner and chairman Andrew Nisbet, whose family boasts 400year-old Scottish connections, travelled to the north-east to attend the official opening.

Mr Nisbet is notoriously publicity shy so was reluctant to speak about his firm’s latest expansion.

But Amy Roberts, the company’s retail marketing manager, said: “Opening Nisbets in the wonderful city of Aberdeen is extremely exciting.

“The new retail unit has allowed us to bring job opportunities to the city. Six full-time members of staff have been employed to work in the store.”

Nisbets has supplied professional chefs throughout the UK for more than 30 years, since launching as a catalogue business in 1983.

Trade customers and members of the public are now able to choose from more than 20,000 products online, or shop more traditionally at its stores.

International expansion has led to offices in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain and Australia, while Nisbets’ export division ships to more than 100 countries worldwide.

Welcoming the company’s arrival in Aberdeen, city council leader Jenny Laing, said: “The decision by Nisbets to open here is yet another vote of confidence in Aberdeen and our city centre.

“This investment reflects that Aberdeen is very much a place to do business now and in future. It also adds to the momentum building around the city centre masterplan.”

Mr Nisbet and his family were ranked 261st in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List of the UK’s wealthiest people, with a fortune estimated at £443million.