HELLO and welcome to the AM Business Briefing as the Virgin Money, owner of Clydesdale Bank, has announced it is to axe branches in Scotland with the loss over 100 jobs.
Diageo has cheered strong recent trading with a better-than-expected recovery in Europe despite mounting supply chain woes, while, elsewhere, job losses will be "part of the process" according to a Government minister, as the furlough scheme comes to an end.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke told Sky News: "Obviously there will be a variety of outcomes, I don't have an estimate with me today. There will be some job losses."
He added: "Furlough has protected 11.6 million jobs in total ... at some point you have to end these emergency measures."
Also today, there is a rare chance to buy an island business and lifestyle property, and a Scottish consortium is bidding to create an offshore wind energy project near Orkney.
Rare island business and lifestyle property for sale
AN unusual “business and lifestyle” opportunity has opened on a picturesque Scottish island at offers over £975,000.
Set on the breathtaking coastline on the Isle of Mull, the business set up by Matthew and Julia Reade three decades ago has become available.
As the owners of Calgary Café on the north-west point of the island, the Reade family “after many joyful years” are retiring and selling the business.
“We felt it was the right time to give somebody else the opportunity to live and work here,” said Mr Reade. “We’re not moving far as we’ve built a house nearby overlooking the bay. We couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
When Mr Reade ventured to Mull as a teenager, he had no idea the lifelong connection with place he was about to forge. “I grew up working on a dairy farm in Somerset,” he said. “When I was about 16, my father sent me and my brother to start a dairy farm on Mull. Then I met Julia and eventually we bought Calgary Farmhouse together.”
A derelict farm originally, Matthew and Julia renovated the space into a seven-bedroom hotel and restaurant, combining Mr Reade’s passion for woodwork and sculpture for the furnishings and Julia’s catering background for the restaurant. “We were accidental hoteliers,” he said. “I was 22-years-old and had barely any experience of staying in hotels, so it was a real learning curve.”
After 22 years as a hotel and restaurant, and once their two sons, Tom and Charlie, were older, Matthew and Julia converted the hotel into self-catering accommodation. The one constant has been their café. “It’s a very busy spot,” said Mr Reade. “We welcome a lot of day trippers and many people who return to Mull every year. There’s people who have been coming here all the years we have been here.”
Near to the Calgary Café is Calgary Art in Nature, a popular woodland trail featuring sculptures that celebrate the beauty of nature. Even on a wet day people come to enjoy the Art in Nature trail which brings many visitors into the café.
Situated next to the beach, Mr Reade says it’s one of the best places for a family to live. “Our boys grew up here with the beach on our doorstep which they just loved. We employ seasonal staff in the summer and when they finish a shift they run down to the beach and swim in the sea. Is there anywhere else in Scotland you can finish your day with a swim in the Atlantic?”
The Reades are excited to see what the next owners of Calgary Café do. “It doesn’t necessarily need to be a café,” Matthew adds. “It could be a licensed restaurant, or a yoga retreat, or a recording studio. It’s such a versatile space."
Virgin Money bank cuts more branches in Scotland
The owner of Clydesdale Bank is making further cuts to its branch network in a move that will lead to more than 100 redundancies across the group.
Scottish consortium in bid to secure for major wind project
A consortium comprising TotalEnergies, Macquarie’s Green Investment Group and Scottish developer RIDG has announced a bid for an offshore wind project in an area west of the Orkney Islands.
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