A Harris-based textiles firm founded by a couple who fell in love with the island while visiting it on holiday has increased production after winning European funding.
Rob English and Carol Graham used a £20,000 European Regional Development Fund grant to help convert a former post office into a new base for their Borrowdale Tweed business.
This makes homewares and accessories, ranging from cushions to caps using Tweed produced on Harris.
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The company increased production in response to strong demand. This has helped it grow sales rapidly since it was founded by Mr English and Ms Graham in a shed in 2017.
Mr English moved to Harris in 2016 to start a holiday letting business, seven years after he and Ms Graham first visited the island.
Mr English was an academic before making the move while Ms Graham worked in textile engineering and colour chemistry.
He said the grant enabled the couple to turn the former post office in Leverburgh into bespoke premises.
Highlighting the support the couple had received from the Business Gateway service, Mr English said: “The input provided really helped clarify our strategy to expand our manufacturing through a move to a larger premises in Leverburgh.
“This included a focus on training and sustainability, to the effect that I now have a site management qualification and we were able to project manage the renovation ourselves.”
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Business Gateway supported Borrisdale Tweed’s successful application to the ERDF’s Grants for Growth Funding scheme. The grant was part funded by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar council.
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