STEPHEN Thompson, the former chairman of Dundee United Football Club, has announced his return to the convenience retail scene in Scotland.
Mr Thompson, son of the late Morning, Noon & Night chief Eddie Thompson, has opened the first of 30 planned convenience stores that will trade as Eddy’s Food Station in Alloa.
The name is a "nod" to his father.
The new store, which will employ 14 people, marks the retail comeback for Mr Thompson who was a senior figure at Morning, Noon & Night prior to the sale of the 50-store chain to Scotmid for £30 million in 2004. He subsequently spent a decade he spent at the helm of Dundee United between 2008 and 2018, when he sold his stake in the club.
The inaugural Eddy’s Food Station in Clackmannanshire will be the flagship store in a chain that is hoped will employ a further 500 people across central Scotland over the next five years.
Mr Thompson said: “This venture is an extremely exciting first leg of a long journey for Eddy’s Food Station. The retail industry is an industry I know and love. It’s an avenue I’ve always wanted to return to and I couldn't be happier that it’s finally happening.
“We are investing heavily in resources and research into our offering and services at each Eddy’s Food Station. We are passionate about giving our customers an unrivalled, superior experience and are taking this opportunity to shake up the market, creating a space that combines convenience and quality that goes above and beyond customer expectations.
"Our employees are fully equipped with information and positivity, implementing an environment that will give customers the best possible experience and create a sense of community.”
Eddy’s Food Station will work with a number of Scottish food wholesalers, and provide customers with products tailored to the Scottish market, the company said. It plans to work with further local food and drink producers as the chain expands.
Mr Thompson added: “The name Eddy’s Food Station is a nod to my father and his successes in the industry.
"I am thrilled to be following in his footsteps with this new venture and look forward to embracing the journey ahead as the Eddy’s Food Station network grows. We will continue to scope out further sites for future stores in more central and convenient locations.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here