A FAMILY-RUN farm and coffee spot popular with Wee County residents will celebrate two decades in the business next week.

Blairmains Farm Shop and Coffee Bothy, recognised as one of the country's earliest shops of its kind, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of first opening its doors on Monday, June 14.

Since its establishment in 2001, the Blairlogie outlet has become a hotspot where people from across Clackmannanshire flock for fresh Scottish produce, homemade lunches and home-baking.

Graeme Logan, 36, of Causewayhead, was born and raised on the farm and plays an active role in the day-to-day running of the business.

"It's all a testament to my mum, dad and aunt, really. They came up with the vision," he told the Advertiser.

"My aunt had always wanted to run a coffee shop. My parents said to her: 'This is what we're thinking', and she was keen to get on board.

"I was just leaving school when the business started up, so I'd come home to give them a helping hand at home time and during the weekends."

His parents, John and Elma Logan, and aunt Margaret Filshie originally set up the new venture in a bid to safeguard the future of the farm.

The business opened up as the farming industry was facing tough times due to foot-and-mouth disease and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Graeme, who owns Coffee Bothy Express and Coffee Bothy Deanston with his wife Lauren, said: "The shop's grown organically since then, and it's not too big to keep that personal touch about it.

"It's a privilege that we get to serve our customers; a lot of them are like friends to us. There's some people that visit five or six times a week."

For the first month of the coronavirus pandemic, the Hillfoots business completely closed to protect a few vulnerable members of the family.

However, the bothy's loyal customers were constantly getting in touch to ask about home-deliveries and click and collect services.

Graeme said: "We decided to start providing those services and it was nice to be able to do that for our customers, especially for some of them who hadn't left the house for a few months.

"We had also put a lot of resources into creating a new extension just before lockdown hit. As soon as we were given the green light to open it, we had to shut down.

"It hasn't always been easy, but we have a great team of staff behind us," he added.

Graeme extended his gratitude to the many customers and staff who have visited the shop over the years and looked ahead to the future of the business.

He continued: "We'd like to say a big thank you to our customers for being a part of the journey. We'll continue to improve and hope to offer more and more services in the future.

"We're over the moon to have reached this milestone and we look forward to the next twenty years."