Perthshire couple sell post office and village store after 21 years to begin 'next adventure'
A Perthshire couple have sold their post office and shop after 21 years to start a 'new adventure.'
Simon and Alison Gray have owned Strathtay Stores and Post Office for 21 years.
The couple have sold the business and will celebrate their final day of trading on May 31.
The store will reopen in late June under new ownership and will remain as a post office and shop.
Simon said locals will be pleased the Spar shop is continuing, with the post office also being transferred to the new owner.
The Strathtay community is planning a farewell party for Simon and Alison on Friday May 30.
Simon, 54, told The Courier what the local support has meant to them.
'It's a really nice touch for them to do that for us.
'We have loved being part of the community.
'We've seen lots of people come and go and we've loved taking part in various committees.
'We ran the shop during Covid, when the supermarkets were closed, and there was a queue outside the shop every day for weeks, so we met lots of people we didn't know and made new friends.'
The couple are planning a move to the Borders as one of their daughters is starting a new job in Northumberland.
Simon added: 'It's been a lovely area to bring up our two girls, Rachel's 22 and Erin's 19, it's been a lovely community.
'We're sorry to go, but we feel the time is right.
'We're not getting any younger and we'd rather do it while we can, rather than later on when we have to sell it.
'That's one of the reasons.
'We're sad to be leaving but happy that it's been sold.
'Off to our next adventure – wherever that may be!'
Elsewhere in Strathtay, a 71-year-old B&B owner has revealed how she became an Instagram gardening guru with 50,000+ followers.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Finextra
37 minutes ago
- Finextra
Money 20/20: The fintech reopening access to African markets
At the start of Covid, large Fortune 500 companies began to leave the African financial markets, citing too much illiquidity and uncertainty. One Ireland-based startup, featured on this year's Money 20/20 'Startup Spotlight' session, built a solution. 0 This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. Esca positions itself as a platform that enables stability and revenue protection within volatile and emerging markets. Particularly, they are interested in the African markets and the difficulties institutions and banks have faced with growth and investment in an area prone to frequent market volatility. CEO and founder, Shalom Osiadi said 'A lot of these business were unable to actually acquire the hard currencies required to book the profits they had made in the country. For example, GlaxoSmithKline has existed in Nigeria since 1955, they generate all their revenue in the local currency: the naira. They book this revenue by a forward contract with the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria does not have enough foreign currencies to actually settle this debt that they have with these multinationals. And so businesses like GSK, they go to the parallel market to look for liquidity and then the parallel market is 3-500 naira above what the central bank rate base is, so they're already losing a significant amount of profit margin just by trading on the spot.' The concept of Esca is essentially to take this on-the-spot fragility and replace it with a predictable, stable platform that protects revenue and, by extension, reopens growth within the continent. Osiadi explained this: 'We have understood that financial engineering really is the key to these markets, right? Once we understand how the macroeconomic environment works, how the numbers work, we can easily translate that into code. So what we're trying to do now is take our algorithms from Excel spreadsheets onto our platform.' With a long-term vision to increase foreign direct investment in the continent, they recognise that it must be done in a safe, transparent, and predictable way. Restabilising investment into the area provides a number of challenges, fundamentally education and platform experience. Speaking about the platform's future, Olumide Olugbemiro, co-founder and CTO, said the user experience has to be consistently seamless: 'To be honest, the more complicated it is, the more they don't understand it, the more we have to jump on calls to explain. So, I'd say making the experience as seamless as possible, as easy and explanatory as possible.' On education, Osiadi explained how 'One of the biggest challenges we had and we still have at Esca is educating African finance managers, CEOs, and CFOs on why currency hedging is important for their business.[...] so you have to change the mindset slightly to let them understand that long-term gain is better than short-term accumulation." Part of their approach to encouraging investment has also included making cryptocurrency accessible to non-crypto firms. This educational point has been key to this; by simplifying the complex elements and focussing on using their own experience to allow users to send, for example, fiat currency to an account and receieve cryptocurrency in a wallet tomorrow. Osiadi said "By using that experience, we've grown our business by over 300% in the last six months. We're forecasted about $6 million in revenue this year. Based off of that knowledge that we've gained from an existing product we've built, we're now translating it into complex products like derivatives."
North Wales Live
3 hours ago
- North Wales Live
Free parking set to end at Gwynedd beauty spot dubbed 'sunset beach'
Charges look set to be introduced at Gwynedd beach car park that was previously free. Parking levies were introduced on a trial basis at the Dinas Dinlle beach carpark, near Caernarfon last summer. Cyngor Gwynedd's cabinet is now being asked to support a plan to start the legal process seeking a permanent off-street parking order at the site, at a meeting on Tuesday, June 10. Dinas Dinlle is a long sand and pebbled coastal area, popular with visitors and locals for its far reaching view towards Anglesey and the Llŷn Peninsula. It is also the site of a nearby Iron Age Hill fort, which has been the subject of archaeological excavation. Get all the latest Gwynedd news by signing up to our newsletter - sent every Tuesday The Cabinet is formally being requested to endorse a plan to delegate authority to the head of economy and community, in consultation with the Cabinet member for economy and community and head of legal services, to prepare an order to make the experimental order permanent, and give notice to the press. During 2018/19, the cash-strapped council had considered areas to make financial savings. In February, 2019, it had approved savings schemes, which included charging parking fees at the beach. The carpark falls within the responsibility of the Maritime Service, Economy and Community Department. Work to develop the parking fee plan was paused due to Covid. It was later decided to hold a trial period. "It was felt that conducting a trial period would be advantageous, and for the period to be reviewed and appraised as part of the work to develop permanent management arrangements for the site," a report had stated. During initial discussions with Llandwrog Community Council in 2019, some local concerns were raised. These had included the "detrimental impact" on businesses and residents of the village, highway safety, and that the beach served a vast number of Gwynedd residents and contributed to health and wellbeing. Further discussions with county council members and the Community Council saw a package drawn up for the site, which had also seen £400,000 improvements to the site, including resurfacing of the car park. The parking fee experiment was organised between August 16, 2024 - September 30, 2024. Fees were payable via a machine, between 9am-5pm, daily, with up to one of parking free, up to two hours: £2, Up to three hours: £3, Up to eight hours: £6 and a season ticket was £25.00. A survey had shown that 64% believed the fees were "too high" and 30% believed that the fees were "fine" , a report noted. Amid the feedback, 50% had agreed that vehicles which parked overnight in the car park should be "managed". A raft of recommendations mooted included introducing measures to prohibit overnight vehicle stays, introducing season tickets at a "reasonable fee" for locals, introducing seasonal fees, between March 1 and October 31, and earmarking 15% of income for maintenance. On April 1, 2025, changes came into force which led to an increase within the parking fees structure adopted by Cyngor Gwynedd. A new fee structure, would now see one hour still free, up to two hours: £2.20, up to four hours: £4.20, up to eight hours: £6 and a Season Ticket of £30 at the beach. A report noted the structure was recommended specifically for the Dinas Dinlle beach car park to "produce an income stream and contribute to the service's income targets, taking into account the site's features and restrictions". The Cabinet report also noted a comment from the council's chief finance officer, stating: "I can confirm that there is an income target for Dinas Dinlle Car Park since Cabinet agreed to introduce a fee and it is £57,930 for 2025/26. I therefore welcome the decision sought.."
The Courier
3 hours ago
- The Courier
John Swinney commits to removing final Rosyth-Dunkirk ferry obstacles
First Minister John Swinney gave a personal commitment to overcome any remaining obstacles to re-establish Scotland's ferry link between Rosyth and Europe. The SNP leader was asked in Holyrood on Thursday to make sure 'bureaucracy' does not prevent the route reopening as early as next year. Green Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Mark Ruskell raised the ongoing campaign in parliament, urging Mr Swinney to 'take the lead'. Responding, Mr Swinney said: 'I'm very happy be to involved, although I'm confident the transport secretary will be able to do all on this that I could contribute. 'The government would welcome this and we will do everything we can to remove any obstacles that are in the way.' Mr Ruskell welcomed the answer, telling The Courier he hoped bringing the necessary decision makers together could allow a resolution to be identified. We reported previously that the UK Government's new Brexit reset could provide a simple solution to the outstanding border control issues. Dunfermline and Dollar Labour MP Graeme Downie suggested the agreement would remove the requirement for a border control post – necessary due to Brexit – where animals, plants and food arriving from Europe would be inspected. It was estimated installing such a post could cost up to £3 million. But it is believed a simple change in the law could allow facilities in nearby Grangemouth to be used as a temporary border control post until the full effects of the deal become reality and no post is required. The previous ferry link between Rosyth and Zeebrugge ended seven years ago after a fire onboard a vessel. Businessman Derek Sloan, of Ptarmigan Shipping, is the driving force behind the recent proposals to revive the route – known as Project Brave. He secured an agreement for the route between Fife and Dunkirk, but uncertainty over the remaining obstacles, and funding for the new border control post, meant the plan was put on ice. Mr Sloan welcomed the commitment from the first minister, saying: 'It's good that they've finally made a decision to overcome these barriers. 'It's common sense that if we need to use a border control post while the legislation is changed, why would we spend £4 million on a new facility that will be closed down?' It is understood operator DFDS is looking to restart the route as early as next year if the remaining challenges can be solved.
