Boozy Cow boosts ARCHIE Foundation
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FIVE Scottish charities - including the ARCHIE Foundation which supports child health in Moray - are to take home a share of more than a quarter of a million pounds thanks to the Boozy Cow restaurants, run by Garreth Wood’s Speratus Group.
The philanthropist today announced donations of £263,000 from his Aberdeen and Edinburgh-based restaurants, The Boozy Cow, which will be donated to their five partner charities of choice: ARCHIE Foundation, VSA, CHAS, STV Children’s Appeal and Youth & Philanthropy Initiative, Edinburgh.
The Speratus Group launched the initiative, #fromMoo2U, last June, committing all annual profits from the restaurants to charities and is confident that, by the end of 2018’s financial year, the combined donations to charity on an annual basis will be more than £1 million.
The Group is in the final stages of acquiring new premises for a Boozy Cow in Stirling and is making advances in securing premises in Dundee, both due to open later this year. In addition, and following the first year’s success, the Aberdeen Boozy Cow is planning to expand to larger premises in late Spring. The Speratus Group plans to open two new restaurants of this kind every year, over the next five years, in both Scotland and England, with Glasgow, Perth, Newcastle and London being considered.
Garreth said: "Our concept is very simple! Every single penny of profit from each Boozy Cow restaurant will go to registered charities.
"At Speratus, we are extremely proud of the Boozy Cow concept and clearly our customers agree. Their loyalty has enabled us to announce a healthy profit from two restaurants, one of which has only been operating for seven months.
"Our incredible staff and the wider team have been blown away by our customer engagement and I want to thank each and every one of them for their support. We encourage our loyal customers to continue to support, eat and drink at all our Boozy Cow restaurants, so we can continue to open new venues across the country.
"Life is a careful balance between what you do for yourself, and what you do for others, and to finally share this profit with our partner charities, has been something of a dream for the Group and for me personally"
Speratus is Latin for ‘hope’ and Garreth explained that his group has a real social conscience.
He said: "If through business, we can go some way to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances or their environment then it has all been worth it.
"We are doing something truly exceptional with the Boozy Cow concept and we look forward to opening more restaurants to increase next year’s total."
The first beneficiaries from the profits of the Boozy Cows in Aberdeen and Edinburgh are -CHAS (Children’s Hospice Association Scotland) in Edinburgh; the ARCHIE Foundation which provides extra facilities to sick children and their families in Highlands and Islands, Grampian and the Northern Isles and Tayside; YPI Edinburgh (Youth Philanthropy Initiative Scotland); VSA - Aberdeen’s major social care charity; and the STV Children’s Appeal.
Maria McGill, chief executive at CHAS, said on the news of the £70,000 share of the profits, "We are absolutely thrilled that our partnership with the Boozy Cow has raised such an incredible amount for CHAS. This generous gift will be used to help pay for important work at Robin House, our hospice in Balloch for babies, children and young people."
David Cunningham, chief executive of The ARCHIE Foundation, welcomed the £70,000 which will go to support the charity’s ‘High 10’ for ARCHIE 10th anniversary appeal for Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital.
He said, "This investment in our work with sick children is incredible and will make a huge difference. In many ways, this is a game-changer for our charitable work as Garreth has not just given a gift; he has created an amazing business to support good causes. He has created a sustainable model for charities like ours that gives us confidence to develop and grow what we do. This gift from everyone at the Boozy Cow will be used in the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital to support some of the most poorly children from across the North of Scotland. It will help transform the care given to local children when they need it the most."
