Kirkcaldy podiatry business moves to new premises, creates jobs and becomes co-operative

Gwyn Malcolm is the owner of Foot Monkey Podiatry, which was based in Tolbooth Street, Kirkcaldy for six years until recently.

Last month the business relocated to new premises in Links Street in the town and as a result, it is also due to take on more staff in the new year.

Foot Monkey Podiatry offers a range of podiatry services along with various new treatments including laser therapy for pain management, injury and strains/sprains.

Gwyn (54) revealed why he decided to move out of Tolbooth Street.

“We needed a bigger premises - the new clinic is bigger and better suited to our expanding needs.

"We also had to take account of changes to legislation for cleansing equipment and sterilisation inside clinical rooms – now we have to have separate sterilisation rooms away from patients.

"I was renting two individual rooms part of the week in a premises in Tolbooth Street whereas this new clinic is purely Foot Monkey Podiatry – we have four rooms, a large reception area, a sales area.

"I have another podiatrist starting in January and another person starting end of January/start of February to keep up with demand.

"Over the past six years I have gone from just myself in one room to a collection of people sharing the other room, but now that I have podiatrist Linda McCallum working with me, we just ran out of space."

Gwym says he plans to run the business as a co-operative.

"I will own the rights to Foot Monkey and other podiatrists will come in to rent a room, but we will all share the workload. When we are up and running by the end of January there will be four of us. It will be the largest private podiatry clinic in Fife.”

Gwyn and Linda are both ex-armed forces – Linda is a veteran medic and Gwyn is a veteran from the submarine service.

After leaving the submarine service after 14 years, he worked as an engineer offshore, a computer engineer and did other various jobs before going back to college ten years ago. He did his O Levels and Highers again at the age of 42, and decided to look at what Queen Margaret University was offering and ended up studying podiatry.

He graduated at the age of 48 and as soon as he got his registration through, he started up Foot Monkey Podiatry in Kirkcaldy.

Gwyn has invested £100,000 over the past six years on the latest equipment: “We are the only clinic to offer laser therapy for pain, wound healing and for injuries, particularly plantar fasciitis. I am also about to take on digital verruca treatment equipment and I have also invested in a digital gait analysis system for precise orthotic fitting.”

He added: “The feedback I have had so far about the new clinic has been great.

"People have said it is more professional, they walk in and say it is like walking into hospital and that’s what we wanted.

"We are still trying to find out feet, but everyone is shocked at how well we have done.”

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