Tartan specialist ScotlandShop sews up forthcoming US store - but where will it be?

Tartan retailer ScotlandShop is set to open a bricks-and-mortar store in the US, looking to harness the large stateside demand for its products.

Owner and founder Anna White said the move comes after the firm, known for dressing Scottish rugby legend and fundraiser Doddie Weir in style, has for nearly two decades served US customers from its base in Duns in the Scottish Borders.

ScotlandShop will on August 31 confirm the location of the new outpost, which will enable tartan-lovers to browse in person its collection of clothing, interiors and fabrics.

The new presence also complements the firm’s shop in Edinburgh’s West End, and its 18 employees based in a two-storey converted granary just outside Duns.

From left: Anna White and Emily Redman who are working to open the new US site. Picture: David Ho.

Ms White said the new US shop “has long been a dream of mine, and while it might seem a little bold given the current climate, I have never been one for procrastinating, and there is nothing quite like being out in front of your customers… If not now, when?”

ScotlandShop, pre-Covid, marched in New York City with Sir Billy Connolly at the annual Tartan Day Parade, “and this was when the conviction that a showroom or base of some kind [in the US] started to become a more fixed objective,” Ms White added. Marketing manager Emily Redman will spearhead the project.

The firm, which offers more than 500 tartans woven in Scotland "for every clan and district”, says there are up to 25 million people of Scots descent living in the US, “with a growing passion for exploring their heritage”.

The firm is targeting the Scottish diaspora, and already does 45 per cent of its business in the US through e-commerce. Picture: David Ho.

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