Christmas came early for one hard-working store team after securing another top award for their efforts.

Bourtreehill Supermarket were winners at the Scottish Local Retailer awards – securing the Community Involvement Retailer of the Year for 2020 after the staffs’ heroic efforts amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During the virtual celebration this month, host and publisher Antony Begley said: “A huge congratulations to Imran and his team at Bourtreehill – we could have handed out a hundred of these awards easily for all the great work in Scotland but we had to choose one winner, a very very worthy winner.

“Imran and his team have managed to help transform an entire community, a community that several years ago had all sorts of problems.

“Thanks to great work that Imran and his team have done with community engagement work and bringing the entire community together, there’s a buzz about the place and that’s the transformational role that a store can play and how important is that – well done guys.”

Shop boss Imran Ali said: “We’re really happy about it as obviously a lot has happened with COVID-19

“We launched our delivery app and put much of our business online as that’s what people needed, especially pensioners, families and vulnerable folk.

“We had to rush it out as it was something we had planned last year and only 70 per cent complete when this all started – and I ended up stuck in Pakistan – so they had to rush the app through.

“The staff were over the moon. It’s good recognition for the staff and area as well. We’re constantly engaging with the community and trying to do the best we can for them.

“We’ve always got a number of projects. All our operations are for benefitting the area and the team really work together to drive that. They engage with the community often in their own time.

“The team have done very well and I’m looking forward to rewarding them. They’ve turned up all throughout COVID-19 as one big team – they’ve done so well this year to handle the situation with their own safety at

risk.

“Recently we’ve been doing our Send a Letter to Santa box and we’re also giving away £500 worth of hampers for vulnerable kids in Irvine.”

If you know anyone struggling who deserves a hamper get in touch on the Bourtreehill Supermarket Facebook page.