Local independent retailers have always been at the very heart of the community and this article about Costcutter Ellon is part of special series called Around Aberdeenshire to showcase the local producers & suppliers livening up our towns and our taste-buds.
photo courtesy of ellontimes.co.uk
Enter Derek Ritchie the Owner of Costcutter Ellon & Mintlaw stores. Here he explains more about how he got started and how the Costcutter in Ellon has continued it’s success into the present day.
Derek started out as a Trainee Manager, at a Fine Fair convenience store in Bridge of Dee after leaving school at the age of 15.
After working his way up Derek took over as Manager of the Ellon Costcutter in 1990 and got the opportunity to take over the store from the Davison’s in 2001 and the Mintlaw store in 2008.
He now splits his time between both stores each day starting in the morning at the Ellon store at 5.40am!
The Ellon store now has around 40 staff with 7 of those working in their butchery.
Their butchery and delicatessen has always added a unique side to their store helping them to differentiate from the competition and enabled them to serve meats from local farms.
Some Highlanders at the Auchmacoy estate — one of the farms that supplies the Ellon Costcutter butchery.
While product come and go and new initiatives are started it’s great to see Derek and the Ellon Costcutters team have consistently maintained a strong supporting of local products and their community.
With over 10,000 different products lines to sell it’s great they really try to source locally and make room for the locals such as baking from Banff and Inverurie, ready-meal pies from Fraserburgh, berries from Barra berries and more.
They’ve done well raising money for charity through their local pride initiative and put in a strong team annually into the Ellon pedal car race.
Derek and the Spirit Retailer of the year award with one of the Judges at the 2016 SLR Rewards night in Glasgow.
The hard work Derek and his team put in is clear and as a result their Ellon store continues to win awards as shown by winning Best Large Convenience Store and Spirit Retailer of the year earlier in 2016.
You can find them at The Square in Ellon, with their normal opening hours:
6.30am — 7.30pm Monday to Saturday
9am — 5pm Sunday
Originally published at bendifa.
