The cherry on top for Cupar as retail award success continues

With High Streets dwindling, Cupar businesses have succeeded in making the centre of town an attractive place to go and no more so than coffee shop Coffee and Kilts.

Intent on capturing the ethos of the local community owner Sean Elder said the award goes right to the heart and soul of the shop.

He said: “I envisioned a community hub providing flexible, relaxing spaces for the people who choose to come in and exemplary service because we all need that from time to time!”

Sean leads from the front and has coordinated fundraising for Age Concern Cupar, North East Fife Toy Drive and Cupar Foodbank.

Sean said: “During UK coffee week I donated 25p from every scone, portion of cheesecake and Americano to Project Waterfall and ran a series of competitions throughout the week with the money raised going directly to WaterAid.”

And still he did not expect to win.

“I was genuinely surprised to win given the calibre of the other nominees who do fantastic work day in day out and am truly grateful for the clear support of my customers.”

Coffee and Kilts joins the Central Cafe, Boundingait, Maisie and Mac, Westport Cafe and Wee Kingdom as winners from Cupar who will now go through to the national awards in Edinburgh.

Lack of competition with big chain stores and a desire for the ‘wee man’ to succeed are what Sean puts at the top of the list of why Cupar seems to be bucking the trend of other crumbling town centres.

He said: “There is a lot of good-will, community and civic spirit, pride and a will for the “wee man” to do well.

“We don’t have big chains imposing on our lovely town and that variety combined with local support keeps Cupar unique and vibrant.”

“Cupar was not on many people’s radars until these awards were publicised.

“As a result of the media attention and people talking about it, people from all over Fife, as far away as Culross and Dalgety Bay have come to my shop in the last few days.”

If scooping five of the top awards at the Fife Business Awards wasn’t enough, a local cafe has also been honoured with the Community award making it six in total for one small town.