McLeish AR
Pic Alan Richardson Dundee Pix-AR.co.uk
McLeish Brothers new Dundee Shop, Hannah Ewen with a bottle of Glenury Royal 1972 whisky one of the fine whiskies being stocked.
A chain of high-class delis is opening across Scotland in a multi-million-pound expansion. The ambitious move by Dundee's McLeish Brothers will create more than 600 jobs across the country. The company have opend their latest store in their home city and are planning to have 25 outlets up and running by the end of next year. The first of the new stores are already trading in Aberdeen and the northeast market town of Inverurie and bosses revealed each new start will initially create at least 25 jobs. Managing director Stanley Morrice, an Aberdeen businessman with many years in the retail trade, said: "When it came to establishing McLeish Brothers' HQ, it was no contest. "The core company have a long tradition with Dundee, in particular, and Tayside in general, and an excellent reputation, so this is our home. "We will be opening more stores in, for instance, Edinburgh and Glasgow than we have on Tayside, but we believe that our home should be Dundee." He added: "I was attracted to McLeish because here was a company using local produce - fish from Arbroath and Peterhead, beef from only Scottish farms - and with the people in place to prepare the meals daily. "Now we are extending this concept and putting a kitchen in every site." McLeish Brothers first opened 60 years ago. The latest outlet will opened in Dundee's Whitehall Street and will be followed by new offices, employing 30 administrative staff, and state-of-theart kitchens, with 50 chefs and other food preparation workers, in Wester Gourdie. McLeish have this week completed a £1million-plus deal to buy Robertsons, a butcher with 120 years of trading in Broughty Ferry. The next step will be the bustling South Bridge in Edinburgh, with more to come in the capital. A number of sites have been identified in Glasgow, as well as Perth, St Andrews and Stirling, before a major push into England.
