A stroke of bad luck can often work out in the long run. It sure did for Christina Morrison and Samantha MacCormick, the two South Uist sisters of the business Croft & Cuan. Redundancy gave them both the push to pursue their goals and they decided to make a go of their new family business.

Since then, they’ve been flat out travelling the length of the islands with their mobile food truck, feeding the masses at festivals, weddings, events and various passing places. I’m sure you’ve seen them and sampled their punny local menu.

“Samantha’s been a chef since she left school. I was doing event’s management and then I was doing marketing when I moved home. Then unfortunately we lost our jobs during the pandemic, we were both made redundant within a few weeks of each other. We were trying to figure out what we were going to do”

The pipedream would soon become a reality for the pair. “We’d always talked about doing our own kind of thing as a ‘one day, bright idea’. It was a bit of a far away dream and then we just thought – d’ya know what, why not!”

They got to work on researching and looking at what was missing from the market in Uist, what they personally would like to have if they were consumers. They also looked at what was happening on the other islands, what was working in other places. “We noticed that at the time there were no food trucks in Uist and the likes of Harris had 5, so we thought we would start with that.”

To add to the stress of starting up a new business, during lockdown headaches, while dealing with Covid restrictions, battling the weather, and raising their own families, the sisters – with the support of Christina’s husband, Kevin – shaped their new endeavour and began to fit the pieces this logistical jigsaw in the early days.

 “The truck made outdoor dining manageable. We could manage it in a way that would keep everybody safe and distant from each other.”

The Croft & Cuan food truck then hit the road and became a local hit, serving Smash à Seo & Hallo M’eudail burgers on their initial menu. 

We like to play with Gàidhlig culture within the branding and with the menu to give it more of an island vibe. Myself and Samantha aren’t perfect fluent Gàidhlig speakers but we both think it’s really important to have and try and do our best with it.” Sin sibh pèin. Cumadh romhaibh! 

“Both of us are very passionate about using local produce as well. We try to get as much as possible locally, as much as we can get a hold of, which changes with the seasons of what we can and can’t get. We get a lot of shellfish from our local fishermen here. They sell to us before they send their stuff away and we get venison from the estate from Stòras Uibhist. It’s quite hard to get other meats in Uist but we’ve branched out to some crofters. We get supplies from Lewis and we’re beginning to get more local meat now. Recently we got lamb from Milton!”

Christina and Samantha haven’t let their busy schedules stop them there though. In the last year the Croft & Cuan shop has opened and has been a welcome addition to Lochboisdale Pier. With an evolving and varied menu, you can keep an eye on what’s being served up in the shop on Facebook and Instagram.

“We decided to open up the shop as a more full-time base. We have the van in the evenings and the shop serves as a coffee and take-away shop. You can buy some bits and bobs in here now as well.”

“We’re still expanding on what we’re offering. We’ve managed to expand our team and we’re able to do more now. So, we’re slowly adding on more things and doing more with more staff over time. We have 5 full-time and 2 Saturday workers with us.”

With all successes come their own challenges. Christina mentioned that: “Hospitality has a reputation for not being family friendly so we try really hard to be as flexible as possible with the girls we have working with us with child care and holidays… and it’s quite scary. The most terrifying thing is being responsible for other people’s livelihoods. When you’re responsible for other people’s pay there’s a lot more pressure. We’re still very much learning, especially when it comes to managing a team”

Having moved back to Uist in 2017, Christina comments that: “There’s a real push these days to improve and develop Uist and keep things moving and keeping things going. There’s more people moving back and there’s plenty of work for us here now.”

It’s exciting to see new and young businesses thriving in Uist and we wish Croft & Cuan all the best with their continuing expansions and growing business.

Tha na h-ighneannan air cumail trang agus faodaidh sibhse sùil a chumail air dè a tha a’ dol aca air Facebook agus air Instagram. Feuchaibh cuideachd air tadhail orra ann an Lochbaghsdail.