MORE than 80 businesses are helping fuel the region’s fightback from Covid-19 by signing up to accept the East Dunbartonshire Gift Card.
The East Dunbartonshire Gift Card received a welcome boost with businesses from across Milngavie joining the scheme, including Café Alba, Libellula Boutique, Milngavie Butchers and Milngavie Orthodontics.
The Milngavie businesses have joined up with the existing East Dunbartonshire local independent retailers and national chains, to urge customers to show local loyalty, protecting local jobs and laying firm foundations for a post-pandemic future.
East Dunbartonshire Gift Cards can only be spent with businesses in the region, locking money into the local economy.
The East Dunbartonshire Gift Card has been launched as part of the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card programme, being rolled out by Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) alongside Scottish fintech Miconex, with launch costs met by the Scottish Government.
Chief Executive of Dunbartonshire Chamber of Commerce Damon Scott says that recent sign-ups will help build momentum for the scheme:
“This is a gift card for East Dunbartonshire, and building the number and variety of businesses we have on board will make it more attractive for customers to buy and employers to use for their staff. Milngavie businesses joining the card is a fantastic addition, and moves us further along the path of making the East Dunbartonshire Gift Card an ultra-local and convenient way for local people to pay for all types of goods and services.”
“This is a great start and we are looking for more and more businesses to come on board and sign up to both the East Dunbartonshire Gift Card and the West Dunbartonshire Gift Cards. There are no costs for merchants to be involved, and they accept the gift card like any other card payment.”
“With the announcement of £80 million Covid Economic Recovery Fund, this is a huge opportunity for us to inject money back into our local economies through our local gift cards.”
Tony I’Anson, Place Manager for the Milngavie Business Improvement District, said: “We are pleased to see the evolution of the gift card concept across Scotland, following on from our initial investment in 2019 to help demonstrate that local communities would buy into the idea. We would also like to encourage all local people to continue to shop local and think local first and support their local businesses at this time and into the long term. Buying a gift card is a direct way of doing this as it locks funds into the local economy and our research demonstrates that people are really enthused to show support for their local high streets.”
STP, the organisation behind the wider Scotland Loves Local campaign is urging people to get behind businesses in their area to help its recovery from the pandemic.
Chief Officer Phil Prentice said: “It’s fantastic to see such a strong response to the launch of the gift card in East Dunbartonshire. The more businesses that sign up, the more opportunities there are for customers to use them and the stronger its power becomes for the entire region’s economy.”
“The pandemic – and the fact that we have spent more of our lives locally – has been a wake-up call as to how many great businesses and attractions there are on their doorstep. We want to give residents every chance they can to show their loyalty to them.”
Each card can only be spent in the region for which it is branded, meaning it is effectively a new form of local currency.
The only requirement for businesses signing up is that they must have a physical presence in the region in which they are registering. Registering to accept the Scotland Loves Local Gift Card is free, with payments processed through the Mastercard network.
Miconex Managing Director Colin Munro said: “Businesses across the country are quickly realising the huge benefits that gift cards have to encourage loyalty and drive positive change in the local economy. As the programme across the region grows, their power as a force for good will only grow. We have seen that time and again.”
“Any businesses interested in registering should get in-touch with our expert team, who can help with the quick and simple on-boarding process.”
For more information go to www.lovelocal.scot/giftcard or https://scotlandgiftslocal.com/
