Indie retailer collects latest award and Paper Tiger gets set for fourth store launch
A well-deserved award and a new store are making the news in Scotland as indie retailers JP Pozzi and Paper Tiger both celebrate.
David Robertson, who runs the Pozzi and Bijou newsagents and greeting card and gift shop group in Buckie and Elgin with mum Lynda, was delighted to regain the Scottish Newstrade Retailer Of The Year title he’d won previously in 2022.
And in Edinburgh the Paper Tiger empire is set to grow with work starting on site in the Stockbridge district for owner Michael Apter’s fourth store.
Very happy with the win in the Scottish Local Retailer Awards announced on Wednesday night, 19 June, David said: “Ironically this was 36 years to the day that my folks first took over Pozzis!”
Although he wasn’t able to attend the event at Glasgow’s Raddison Blu Hotel to collect the trophy, the video taken by the judges on their unannounced store visit can be seen below and David added: “Well done to all the team both in store and, of course, the delivery drivers and paperboys and girls who are the backbone of providing what I feel is an outstanding service.”
Adding the trophy to the haul which includes the 2023 UK Newsagent Of The Year title in the Fed Awards along with a number of Retas and Greats wins and nominations, David and Lynda have two stores in Buckie’s High Street.
Pozzi provides a 364-day newspaper delivery service plus café, takeaway food and drinks, cigarettes, lottery at number 8, with 17b offering 100ft of cards, alongside a value-based selection of gifts, stationery, handmade chocolates, and party, to complement its flagship store Bijou in Elgin where there are two floors of greetings, gifts, jewellery, a beauty salon and newly-refurbished coffee shop.
Meanwhile south of the Highlands, the secret is out in Edinburgh as Paper Tiger, which has been an retailing institution in the Scottish capital for over 40 years, is growing again with a shop on 106b Raeburn Place set to open in the summer, offering over 80sq m of floor space for cards, gifts and stationery.
Owner Michael explained: “The shop is currently being fitted out to provide an atmospheric space to showcase our ranges, support local artists and makers, and create new jobs in the area.”
He said to look out for around 600 greeting card designs on the” very, very long card wall”, an amazing array of stationery products, unexpected treasures, unique and unusual gifts, a mountainous Munro of Jellycat friends, and the bean-to-bar to hand-to-mouth taste-tested Great Wall Of Chocolate.
Explaining the choice of area for the latest store, which joins the Stafford Street, Lothian Road and Morningside Road outlets that were last month named as one of the three top gift shops in the city, Michael added: “It’s very special to me. I lived in Stockbridge for many, many years, my eldest daughter grew up here and attended Stockbridge Primary School.
“I have very happy memories of pushing her along Raeburn Place in her buggy. I now live just a few minutes’ walk from our new shop and Stockbridge is a big part of my family life.”
The area is a vibrant and exciting part of the city, and Michael is determined his business will make a “positive contribution to the community that live, work and visit the area”, as well as supporting local initiatives to help it thrive.
