A “LABOUR of love” has given a new lease of life to a historic store in the East Neuk – it has opened as an eco-friendly café.
The Beehive in Crail has been transformed by new owners Joanne and Iain Stewart who bought the old general store during the outbreak of Covid-19 and began overhauling the space in February 2021.
Joanne said: “This has truly been a labour of love for us. We have fallen in love with living in Crail and the beautiful East Neuk coast.
“We felt it was important to offer goods produced locally in the café and gift shop. The support we have been given by the local community has spurred us on to create something really special in the village.”
The couple said they “lovingly restored the character of the building to reflect its heritage” using reclaimed materials and exposing the original features.
The café will have a special focus on eco-friendly and local products, offering speciality coffee, home-bakes, light lunches and arts and crafts.
This summer Joanne and Iain plan to offer plastic-free beach toys and will hire out buckets, spades and other beachy items – they hope to tempt customers with locally-produced ice cream as well.
The Beehive was originally set to open last summer, but Joanne and Iain faced Covid-related setbacks. Their venture into small business was supported by Alasdair Busby, business adviser at Business Gateway Fife.
Business Gateway Fife is a council scheme that specialises in a variety of business support services. Alasdair helped the couple with market research and planning.
He said: “the website and social media presence also required development and we were able to secure excellent Digital Boost support for strategy for the business. We are now looking at a strategy for the year ahead including Expert Help around Marketing.
“Joanne and Iain have also been referred to Zero Waste Scotland as they aim to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible.”
Joanne said that they were enormously grateful for the support of Business Gateway Fife, as well as the local community and tradespeople who had helped them reach opening. She added that they hoped the Beehive would become “something to be proud of and honour Crail’s fine past”.
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