Since its launch in 2015, Coralbox has grown from tabletop sales to an independent gift shop on the island of Berneray.
After studying photography at college in Aberdeen, Eilidh Carr moved back home and started selling a range of products featuring her own shots.
She has used her ambition and love for photography to singlehandedly grow the award-winning business on the island where she grew up.
“When you’re quite young you want away from the island to see the city life, but then when you get away you think ‘oh, I miss the beaches and the quietness’,” she said.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I started using my photography, pictures of the beach and flowers, on mugs and coasters.
“I went to craft fairs and tabletops and sold them and that kind of kicked off the idea. That was the first summer and then over the winter, my dad and I converted a caravan into a shop.”
Opening a gift shop
Once Coralbox outgrew the caravan, the 29-year-old’s dad started building the wooden shop that she works from today.
“It grew from moving home and then the tabletops, then the wee caravan to the big shop. It’s quite funny looking back, but it’s how it grew,” she said.
“I moved into the wooden shop at the end of 2016, just in time for Christmas shopping. I did try to help build it but I’m not very good at hammering in nails.”
The shop’s customer base has also grown over the years with a mixture of tourists and island residents visiting Coralbox to buy gifts, including those who have come across the store on social media.
Eilidh added: “Sometimes it will be families and sometimes it will be couples, and there’s camping people and cyclists, quite a big mixture I’d say.”
“The locals visit as well, if they need a birthday present or Christmas present, they come.”
Award-winning business
In 2019, Eilidh won entrepreneur of the year at the Women in Tourism Awards in Edinburgh.
A month later she became a finalist in the retail category at the National Family Business Awards held in the UK capital.
She said: “I went down to London and spent more time travelling than I did in the city. But it was in Wembley, it was quite exciting for my shop to be all the way down there – from a wee caravan to Wembley.
“I did get a shoutout in the big opening for travelling the furthest so it was nice for that to be recognised.”
Working with other creators
As her business has grown, Eilidh has started selling products made by other creators through Coralbox.
“When I was selling at tabletops, I was trying to get into other places as well, but it’s quite difficult sometimes,” she shared.
“So, when I got my big shop built, I started taking on other people’s crafts and work as well. I think I have maybe 25 other crafters and businesses who make candles and soaps and bits.”
“Some of it is people making things in their homes, as a wee hobby, and then it’s all the way up to other island established businesses. Some are from Berneray, some up in Lewis, some from Scotland.
“I try to get things that other shops don’t have. There’s not many gift shops through the islands so I think people try to visit them all, it’s just to be different from the others.”
Reaching a wider audience
Coralbox is located near the fishing harbour on the island of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides. The inhabited island is connected to North Uist by causeway and South Harris by ferry.
“It’s just a tiny wee island, two miles by three miles. We’re in the middle of the Outer Hebrides so a lot of people doing the Hebridean Way will come onto Barra and work their way up.
“In the last few years, I’ve noticed the island has got a lot busier, even since I got my shop.”
To reach a wider customer base, Eilidh moved Coralbox online when she was forced to close the shop during the pandemic.
“I made a website up and I’ve been posting things out online. That’s got quite busy. I’ve posted to New Zealand and America, it’s quite interesting that my wee shop gets around the world,” she said.
“I have tea towels, a Berneray calendar, I’ve been doing that probably since 2016, that’s been quite popular, cards, and I did have my own printers for tabletops. I used to print coasters and mugs with my own heat presses in the shed, keyrings, just bits and bobs.
“After 2020, when I shut, I didn’t know if I’d open again so it’s good to still be here and to keep growing.”
Catch a glimpse of the island
Those looking to experience the island for themselves can check out the live cameras on the Coralbox website.
Eilidh and her dad decided to set up cameras to share the shores of Bays Loch with people online during the first lockdown and they have been viewed tens of thousands of times since.
“When the first lockdown happened and nobody could get to the island or around Scotland, we thought we would bring the island to people,” she shared.
“In the winter, people watch them for the storms and in the summer, when there’s more daylight you can see a lot more, the boats going out and I’ve seen somebody watch an otter from Australia.
“If there’s a snow shower or the big gales sometimes the waves crash over the fixed cameras. People look at them before they come on holiday as well, to see the weather and the area.”
Coralbox online sales will return in February while the gift shop will re-open in spring.
