Tennent Caledonian has given a boost to the Shawbost Shop and Café on the Isle of Lewis in the form of a brand new delivery van.
Shawbost owner Michael Fitzpatrick had previously launched a crowd funding campaign to buy a van, to provide a vital delivery service to the 20 mile stretch of coast between Lewis and Stornoway including many communities with no local shop.
The Renault Trafic SWB Diesel was fully stocked with Tennent’s Lager before the keys were handed over to Michael at Wellpark Brewery.
Michael said: “We’re tremendously grateful to Tennent Caledonian for donating the van which we’ll have so many uses for. We’ll be setting up a delivery service covering the entire 20 mile stretch between here and Stornoway, with no set time slots and a very small minimum spend.
“Many of these communities don’t have a local shop, so with the van we can be really flexible and deliver to our customers up and down Lewis at any time of the day. They need only give us a ring and we’ll pop straight up. We’ll also be attending various community events acting as a mobile shop. I’ll even be able to take on two new members of staff to help with all the additional work.”
Alastair Campbell, Managing Director at Tennent Caledonian said: “When we saw that Michael had launched a crowd funding campaign to buy the van we simply had to help. We work to support the licensed trade and communities across Scotland every day, and so were more than happy to lend Michael a hand. We’re delighted to support his efforts to serve the community and create valuable employment on the Isle of Lewis.”
