Anne MacLellan
Uist is a place flourishing with businesses and entrepreneurship and our next Uist Beò contender has been working hard in North Uist expanding her own family business. Cò eile, ach Anne MacLellan.
Anne’s business takes on three strands. She is steering the ship at the Balranald Hebridean Holidays campsite, The Dunes Cabin food trailer, and the newly opened Dunes Larder, a farm shop with vending machines based in North Uist. Twelve years ago, the campsite was born, with by the food cabin opening its hatch the following year. This year, the Dunes empire opened it’s Larder in Hougharry.
‘We have a whole range of people from all over the world come to visit, we see pretty much every nationality and we have lots of regulars. People who come every year or even a few times a year.
The beach is right on our doorstep. So increasingly over the years, it’s become more popular with families, especially in the summer months. It’s a nice day that people congregate and meet there and it’s a good meeting point for local people as well.
The Dunes Cabin menu features an Uibhisteach theme. Local is important to Anne and her family, and they have made a big effort to keep their food miles down with Uist scallops being the most popular item on the menu. People come from far and wide for a scallop and bacon or black pudding roll, with one customer once commenting that they’d travelled over 400 miles for a Dunes Cabin delight!
‘We try to source our ingredients from businesses that are on the islands as much as we can. There is a demand for local produce, so we try to use as much from here as possible. I think freshness is important.’
With the newest business venture, The Dunes Larder, Anne and her family saw that there was a demand for people wanting to buy what our island has to offer for themselves in one convenient place. The larder is open 24 hours and customers can select what they want from the refrigerated vending machines that fill the larder. Here, you can buy salmon, shellfish, bakery items, vegetables, machair potatoes, coffee and all other products that Uist is famous for. Eventually, Ann hopes to fill the larder with local meat. The aim is local convenience. Just a tap of your card and your product is released from it’s place.
‘I can see when things are bought and sold. People might be in at five in the morning, grabbing a coffee or buying something to take on their journey. If they arrive off the ferry late at night, it’s still open and they can come anytime and get milk or something to eat. Whatever you need is there. So that’s the beauty of it.
It’s obviously quite new, and like anything you start new, it takes time for people to realise what’s avaliable. The best advertising is always word of mouth. If somebody says, ‘oh, I went along there and I bought a lobster from the vending machine, or whatever’ it’s far more effective than advertising on Facebook or Instagram. So, we’re still trying to spread the word.’
Anne has noticed that there is one range of products that can’t be got in Uist or even the Outer Hebrides. Maybe, this could be another business for someone out there one day.
‘There’s no dairy anywhere in the Hebrides. So we get our cheese from Highland Fine Cheese in Tain. So, I’ve gone for the next closest place.
Our business has developed from, originally being involved in crofting. That was the beginning of it and then we’ve diversified over the last twelve years. It’s been a natural progression for us. There was no master plan to begin with, but one thing has led to another and each idea has evolved into the next. We’re learning all the time, and you see new opportunities as they arise.’
Anne also wants the larder to exist to support other growers and sellers who are working hard in the islands.
‘Not everybody wants to be going standing or selling at markets. We could be an outlet for people to sell whatever they’ve got surplus. We can provide them with a shelf and I think that’d be great.
We should also probably be going back to eating a bit more seasonally. Often you can buy whatever, any time of the year in the shops and there’s no word about where its come from. It’s probably been shipped from halfway across the world to get to you at that time of year. We should be more aware of where our food is coming from and how its been processed.’
Currently, Anne employs eleven people. She says that this responsibility was daunting when she first started but also mentions that she: ‘couldn’t do any of it without the staff.’
I am passionate about employing local people in my business. We have a number of young people working in The Cabin and its a great opportunity for them to develop their customer service skills. It’s great to see them grow in confidence as the season progresses and stands them in good stead in whatever they decide to do in later life.
We’ve got a great team who do a really good job and then that reflects in people having a great experience when they come. We’ve won a number of awards and I think that reflects on the staff because they do a great job.
We’ve got as a real team, I feel like we’ve got a really good team ethos. Everybody works together to do a good job.
When I think of the staff, my family, the community, and the customers I think of one big family. It’s funny, I call our campsite family, because I do feel like people that stay with us are they become like a part of the family. The people that we have regularly, they’re not just guests. They are part and parcel of our family now because you get to know them so well and you build up this really lovely rapport with them, and when they come back and that makes the job so enjoyable.
While asking Anne for words of encouragement for new potential business owners she says:
‘If you’ve got an idea, a good idea, and you’re passionate about it, go to Business Gateway. They have great support and can help with a business plan.
Something I struggled with initially was that I tried to do everything myself, but you can’t do that long term because it’s just not possible. I’ve learned a lot about my own abilities and that I can’t do everything. You have to have a team of people and trust them.
At first, you think you’re the only person that can do it and it’s took me quite a bit of time to learn that that’s not the case.
I love what I do because of the people I meet. Even though there are long hours and, yes, it can be tiring, people make it. In the cabin, I’m often working there six days a week, but I’m also meeting people and chatting to people all the time. I think if you’re sociable and if you like meeting people then come and work in the cabin.
With any business, if you’ve got that support, then you can do anything.
You can follow the Anne and the Dunes Family online through the following links: