The East Ayrshire Gift Card launched in August 2020 in partnership with the Kilmarnock Business Association making gifting and shopping local so much easier.
It is simply a Mastercard which works on a closed loop, ensuring that money circulates in our communities. The card can be loaded with any value from £5 to £500 and feedback from the business community has been highly positive.
There are now over 200 businesses registered across East Ayrshire who accept the gift card.
With so many businesses across East Ayrshire participating, the choice of where to spend gift cards is wide and varied including:
- restaurants
- coffee shops
- hairdressers
- leisure activities
- spas
- nails
- clothes
- gift shops
- opticians
- theatre and entertainment
- tyre shops
This has been a highly successful initiative which has since been replicated and rolled out to every local authority in Scotland by the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Towns Partnership.
In November 2021 East Ayrshire Council and the Kilmarnock Business Association were awarded the Judges Special Award from the Scotland Loves Local awards for their trailblazing work on the East Ayrshire Gift Card, supporting local businesses through the worst of the pandemic.
Participating businesses
You can find a full list of businesses who accept the gift card at Town and City Gift Cards: East Ayrshire Gift Card.
Testimonials
Feedback from some of our businesses:
Could I also add, as a business, we have had great success with the gift card. Keep up the good work."
Ian Faulds, Butchers
Very impressed with the amount of customers coming into the shop with the East Ayrshire cards – you’ve all done a great job of getting them out there."
Mark Tognini, Ayrshire Schoolwear