South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth was out in Dumfries this week supporting local businesses by helping to promote Small Business Saturday which falls on the 2nd December this year.

The annual event which aims to promote and encourage people to shop locally within their towns and villages across the UK brought its campaign to Dumfries High Street at the weekend, when the Small Business Saturday Tour Bus came to town.

A number of local businesses came along to demonstrate the positive impacts that shopping locally can have on a town.

The campaign came with a host of representatives from the team and brought together a range of small business from artists, food merchants and more.

Small Business Saturday recent announced that last year:

–       Customers spent £717m with small businesses on Small Business Saturday, an increase of 15% on 2015 spending

–       Over 140,000 tweets were sent on the day reaching 130 million people, trending on Twitter in the UK and globally

–       Over 80% of local authorities across the UK actively supported the campaign in a variety of ways, from networking events to free parking, meaning wherever you were in the UK, Small Business Saturday was happening nearby

Speaking after the event Colin Smyth MSP said:

“I have been supporting Small Business Saturday for a number of years now and it just keeps getting bigger.

“We are privileged in Dumfries to have such a large and varied numbered of small businesses across the town centre, despite the massive challenges they face from internet shopping, easy access to our cities and out of town developments. People often say there aren’t enough shops in our town centres but that’s why we need to shop locally as often as possible, to keep what we have an hopefully attracted more”.

“I would encourage everyone in Dumfries and Galloway to go out and shop in your local small business not only on the 2nd December but all year round and help promote and grow small businesses right across the region.”

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