A sports shop, a music retailer and a travel centre are among the firms all hoping for your vote in order to become Glasgow’s favourite business.
They are among the six businesses short-listed in the high-profile category in the annual Glasgow Business Awards.
Come October 7, at a special event at the Thistle Hotel, one of the six will become the latest winner of the coveted title, joining an illustrious list of previous winners, which includes the Q snooker club, Slaters menswear and Auchentoshan Distillery.
The lucky six are: Fopp Records, Greaves Sports, Fratelli Sarti, the St Enoch Centre, Barrhead Travel and Dumbreck Decorators.
They were nominated by readers – either because they have, in your opinion, contributed something to Glasgow, or helped reinforce the city’s reputation as a major retail presence.
The business awards are staged by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. The Evening Times is the media sponsor, while the headline sponsor is the Bank of Scotland.
Today we profile two of the six – Fratelli Sarti and Greaves Sports. Later we’ll turn the focus on the other four.
Meantime, you can already cast your vote for Glasgow’s favourite business.
Email your vote to news@eveningtimes.co.uk, with “Favourite Business” in the subject field, or send it by post to Glasgow’s Favourite Business, Evening Times, 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB.
Deadline for votes is Friday, August 30.
Sarti’s have had the right recipe since 1992...
If you were to walk blindfolded into Fratelli Sarti in Wellington Street, you would still know where you were – assuming your sense of smell was intact.
The familiar lunchtime smells of coffee and freshly-made food are the same as they have always been here, since August 1992, when the restaurant was opened by brothers Sandro and Piero Sarti. They had previously worked at another Glasgow institution – Fazzi’s cafe-bar in Cambridge Street.
In the 18 years since, Sarti has become one of the top Italian names in Scotland’s restaurant scene, keeping itself authentically Italian by continuing to source much of its food supply from that country.
It extended round the corner into Bath Street in 1995, then opened a new venue in Renfield Street in 2000.
More recently, it has established a presence in Balloch, at picturesque Loch Lomond, one of Scotland’s prime tourist destinations.
Since a £5million management buyout in May 2008, Sarti’s trading business has been run by six directors – Sandro’s daughter Daniela Sarti, Patricia Diamond, Michele Arrighi, Renato Cimmino, Patrick Collins and Vicky Black.
“We are delighted to have been nominated for Glasgow’s Favourite Business,” said finance director Patricia.
“As a business we are doing fine, and have been holding our own in this current climate.
“We’ve been around a long time and it is always good when we get recognition in this way.”
The Italian connection remains key at Sarti. The coffee recipe follows the one that was originally brought over here by Sandro and Piero’s great-grandfather, and the same applies to the restaurant’s famed sausage.
It has hardly escaped Sarti’s attention that Glaswegians, in common with most other Scots, love their Italian food.
“I can’t think of anything you could get in Italy that you wouldn’t want,” says Patricia.
“All of Italy’s products are so adaptable, and many of them have a healthy-eating aspect, plus there are all the different tastes, smells and flavours to take into account.
“Sometimes you can go to another country and maybe be slightly hesitant when it comes to trying some food.
“But in Italy, you can get a feel for what the food is going to be like, simply by looking at it.”
The Italian connection is present in other ways, too. Daniela Sarti’s family hail from Lucca, a medieval walled town in Tuscany, while the family of head chef Michele Arrighi are from nearby Barga, high in the Tuscan mountains.
Co-director Renato Cimmino comes from Sorrento.
Patricia and two of her colleagues have also just returned from a trip to Italy, visiting a couple of vineyards “to see if there’s anything new and interesting we can add to our vast wine-list.
“We hadn’t been to either of those vineyards before.”
Sarti’s turnover comes to some £3m across the three units.
“We get our fair share of the market,” she added, “and I think that’s down to the friendly atmosphere, our longevity, and the quality of the product.”
- www.sarti.co.uk
Greaves have been on the ball for 70 years
The recent World Cup in South Africa held millions of TV viewers spellbound for a month.
To the staff of one of Scotland’s best-known sports stores, however, the event was nothing new – not when the store they work for has witnessed no fewer than 19 of them.
The family behind Greaves Sports started trading in the 1930s and is one of Glasgow’s longest-established companies.
Managing director Sandy Greaves said: “We’re delighted to have been nominated for Glasgow’s Favourite Business and would be honoured to win the main award.
“Our family has traded in the city since 1930 and I’m pleased to say that business is stronger than ever with four stores and more than 100 staff. To put it in context, our shop has been open through 20 Olympic Games and 19 World Cups.”
Greaves’ roots can be traced back to the days when Sandy’s grandad, William, bought out the Birmingham and Leyland Rubber Company in its art-deco building in Gordon Street and re-named it the Clydesdale Rubber Company.
In the 1950s it went down the sports route. In the next decade, it bought rival Lumleys, which had a store in Sauchiehall Street.
The Gordon Street store became Greaves Sports in 1967, though it wasn’t until 1990 the Sauchiehall Street premises followed suit.
Today Greaves, which also has branches at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield and Hampden Park, caters to a huge field of sports enthusiasts, irrespective of whether their interests lie in football, rugby, cricket, golf, bowling, running, boxing, swimming, darts or squash.
Former staff members have included former Scotland keeper Alan Rough, top golfer Janice Moodie, and former Scotland and Glasgow rugby star Glenn Metcalfe.
Frank Bruno, Samuel L. Jackson and Eminem have all shopped there.
Greaves has also built up a wealth of signed memorabilia and sports goods that would be the envy of sports museums.
But the store has moved with the times. The golf department has two PGA-qualified professionals and golf simulators, and there’s video analysis to enable runners and skiers to get the best footwear.
Sandy added: “We’re proud to be part of this city and serve such a loyal customer base. Our staff wear shirts and ties, are mannerly and know the products – I don’t think that will ever be old-fashioned.”
