A Neilston coffee business has thanked locals for their support after being named runner up twice over at a glittering awards ceremony in Glasgow.

Coffee Roasters Scotland was highly recommended by the judges in the Best Industry Specific Supplier and Best Scottish Product categories at the People’s Choice Business Awards.

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The event, which recognises and rewards hard-working Scottish firms, took place at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on Thursday, June 20.

The coffee business is operated by Raymond Kerr and Marc Jones as part of a joint partnership. Raymond works full time for the business and is helped by his partner Jenn Bryers, who is involved in the roasting and order making.

Marc Jones deals with websites and has experience in sales while Raymond Kerr does a mix of everything.

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Raymond told the Barrhead News: “I just want to say a big thanks to the local and national community for their ongoing support and also family and friends who help aswell.

“We can not begin to tell you how big this is for our business - a business that started as a hobby during the first lockdown back in 2020.”

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Indeed, things have come a long way since we first spoke to entrepreneur Raymond back in February 2022 about grinding out a living through Rambeans, the coffee roasting business which he set up in 2020 and operated out of his parents’ kitchen in Neilston.

In April 2022, realising that the business needing freshening up, he asked his friend Marc from Barrhead to get involved to bring in a different skill set and extra pair of hands.

From this Coffee Roasters Scotland was born and moved into an outbuilding at his parents’ house before outgrowing this quickly and moving into a new dedicated roastery in Neilston’s historic Crofthead Mill in May 2023.

Around this time they purchased “Bluey”, their 1974 Commer coffee van, and in October publicly announced their trader's licence had been granted, which allowed them to begin operating from the Tesco car park in Barrhead.

In April they began parking the van at Fereneze Plant Nursery in Barrhead instead and this is where they now offer their range of speciality, ethical and local coffee from Thursday to Sunday every week.

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“To even reach being a finalist in two categories never mind being highly recommended for both categories is a huge honour,” added the trio.

“We were against some amazing companies with some amazing products and services.

“We did say amongst ourselves that 2024 was going to be a big year for us, so far it really has.”