New Moray business Beinn coffee and bookshop opens in Dufftown after Southampton man fell in love with Speyside during previous holidays
A man from Southampton has launched a new venture in Dufftown after spotting a gap in the market.
Sam Matthews opened Beinn, a coffee and bookshop, on Saturday.
The 33-year-old moved to the town with his partner Kelly Braund and their dog just two weeks before the UK was forced into its first coronavirus lockdown more than five years ago.
They had “fallen in love” with Speyside during previous holidays and decided to move to the area permanently, buying a “rundown house” and renovating it themselves over the course of the pandemic.
Mr Matthews, who has a background working in comms and marketing, decided to make a career change when he noticed a sign advertising a shop for sale at 6 Balvenie Street in the town.
He said: “I just thought screw it, I think this is the right time and I wanted to do something different and there were a lot of empty shops in the town at the time.
“I really think there is a bit of a gap in the town especially for some really high quality coffee.
“We want to provide really well-made barista style coffee, like you’d find in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow because it’s still quite difficult to come by around sort of rural Scotland so we want to fill that market.”
As well as offering high quality coffee, the shop will also stock around 2000 books.
Mr Matthews says it could help fill the void left by the closure of Waterstones following its displacement from the St Giles Centre in Elgin.
“Again, we’re just trying to fill that gap,” he said.
“There’s only a handful of independent booksellers around the north east of Scotland.
“There are a lot of bookshops around that have maybe got a little café and there are a few cafés that sell a handful of books.
“There’s not many places that are going full bookshop and speciality coffee shop and that’s what we’re going for.
“We’ve got around 2000 titles in stock across a full range of genres so it’s not huge but there should be something there for everyone.
“We feel we’ve got quite a unique offering. It’s a really great community space where people can get a drink, sit by the wood fire in the winter and get all of your daily reads.”
