Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeenshire farm shop secures jobs with new outdoor cafe area which doubles its capacity

Post Thumbnail

A new outdoor space at Marshall’s Farm Shop has now more than doubled the covers the eatery can turn around in any one sitting during the coronavirus pandemic.

An Aberdeenshire farm has managed to secure 15 staff jobs thanks to its new outdoor seating addition.

The new building at Marshall’s Farm Shop, took around five weeks to build from start to finish and has doubled the capacity of the premises, adding 24 additional covers to the 20 seats it already offered inside.

This means the family-owned business is able to keep on all of its team to service more than 40 customers at any one time.

The new outdoor seating area.

Designed and constructed by the Marshall’s family with the help of a steel company and a self-employed joiner, the firm based outside Kintore on the A96 created the space to attract more people to the socially-distanced cafe. The outdoor area is dog-friendly and is mainly running at a two-metre distancing capacity.

Julia Marshall, one of the three daughters of Kenny and Moira Marshall who own Marshall’s Farm Shop, said the new addition was “desperately needed” to ensure customers had a comfortable space when visiting the premises.

She said: “Initially we had only been able to offer so many seats in the cafe and we had a few tables located outdoors for the summer. They were working fine and gave people the chance to sit outside if they were too scared to or didn’t want to sit inside.

“It’s getting a bit colder now so around six weeks ago we were racking our brains about what we could do and thought maybe a marquee would work. But we thought we’d rather do something a bit more permanent.

The exterior of the new outdoor area.

“Our cafe was small anyway and all of the seating was pretty crammed but we cut that right back to socially distanced tables. We’ve only got around 20 seats just now inside and it wasn’t really working, especially as we wanted to keep on all of our staff. They have worked so hard and we’ve worked hard with them and we didn’t want our team to be affected and ensure everyone was still in a job.

“It currently seats 24 but that’s socially distanced seating. There’s plenty space for whenever we can move the tables back to normal and there’s a wood burning stove in the middle. The majority of the tables are two metres spaced, but there is one area at the front which is open just now and the tables there would be one metre. We’ll close that off when it gets to cold nearer winter. It is also dog-friendly so people can also bring their pets with them.”

Customers can now enjoy their meals outside in the new space.

In the process of building a new store and extending the cafe area, Marshall’s has invested in a new premises which will open in late summer 2021.

She added: “We’re building our new shop and extending the shop and cafe. There’s a massive building which is a field structure just now – it’s in the pipeline for next year, so we thought this new space we’ve created could be an addition to that.

“We’re thinking late summer for the new opening as the pandemic has slowed us down a little with getting our supplies.”

Open seven days a week from 9am to 4pm and closing earlier on a Sunday at 2pm, Julie says the online and customer reaction to the new space has been “incredible”.

“It went crazy on social media and its so nice to see everyone taking interest in it. We’re not really interior designers but my mum and I just put our heads together and came up with some ideas. We wanted it to be as welcoming and nice as possible and the stove fired up completely makes it. It looks lovely.”