REDS channelling consumer spending into rural areas

Business owners are being asked to support a revamped initiative designed to channel consumer spending into rural and island towns and villages. The Rural Enterprise Directory Scotland (REDS) Rural Gift Card was launched last year by GrowBiz, Scotland’s rural enterprise agency. An update to the scheme means all rural businesses with a turnover under £500,000 can now be listed on the directory - and be part of the REDS Rural Scotland Gift Card - free of charge. 

REDS aims to make every small rural and island business visible and to stimulate community, collaboration and connections across the huge variety of Scottish rural micro-enterprises. By supporting businesses on REDS, you are helping local rural economies to recover and survive into the future.

Andy Lambert, Enterprise Facilitator at GrowBiz, explained: “The more rural businesses join REDS, the stronger our platform and the better conversations we can have with policy makers. REDS is a place for leaders to see the tangible representation of the rural community - it is our mission to ensure that issues relevant to rural and island communities are firmly on the economic agenda.” A fifth of Scotland’s population lives in rural areas, and economic activity across the country’s non-urban areas accounts for approximately one third of Scotland’s overall economy annually.

Simon Yearsley, co-owner of The Scottish Deli - part of the scheme - said: “Unless we want to have our lives run by Amazon, Tesco and click and collect, we have to stand together as rural businesses."

“There is a massive volume of rural businesses out there, from shops and artists to childcare provision and cafés - by being part of REDS, we can shine a light on what is available locally, connect with other business owners and share ideas and, crucially, reach a critical mass of attraction for the REDS Rural Gift Card.”

Located in Dunkeld, Yearsley opened the deli in 2015 alongside wife Sarah and business partner Jane (above). “17 months ago though, when the pandemic started, our world turned upside down,” he stated. “Rural economies have a high visitor dependency and when that dropped out, rural businesses like ours suffered.

“We had to change our business objective, from trying to make a little bit of money to becoming part of the food solution in Dunkeld and keeping staff alive - that might sound dramatic, but we employ 30 people in the summer months and we did all we could to look after our staff and avoid redundancies.”

A business born from the pandemic is the Mull and Iona Shop, started by Joe McFadden and his wife Chloe in 2020 (above). “The Isle of Mull and the Isle of Iona are both very seasonal, tending to have lots of tourists in the summer and turning quieter in the winter,” they said.

“When I saw how quiet it was in 2020, I was inspired to make a marketplace for local creators to showcase their products, from Tobermory Whisky oak cask pens to artisan chocolates, jewellery, calendars and t-shirts. The community has pulled together, and there has been a real sense of trying to support small, local businesses."

“We joined the REDS Rural Gift Card after seeing something on social media, as it ties in well with what we’re trying to achieve and makes it easy for people to shop locally.

The REDS Rural Scotland Gift Card is part of Miconex’s Town and City Gift Cards scheme, active in more than 17 locations in Scotland. Colin Munro, Managing Director of Miconex, added: “The strong sense of community means that small towns can have incredibly successful gift card programmes, and the REDS Rural Scotland Gift Card builds on this by gathering together many small rural and island communities from right across Scotland into one larger rural community, creating an extremely attractive customer proposition.”

The Directory and REDS card scheme were set up in response to the devastating impact Covid-19 had on many rural businesses during 2020 and who, over a year on, are still in the early stages of recovery. By providing access to promotion, enterprise support and collaboration - designed specifically for the challenges encountered by businesses operating in rural and island areas, REDS and GrowBiz provide wrap-around support to those individuals and organisations critical to the future of the rural economy.