Scotrange helps bring about change
Located in the small village of Tullibody near Stirling, Tron Cafe is a traditional fish and chip shop that hasn’t changed much since Donald Drysdale opened it with his wife in 1971. That is until recently when daughter Gemma took to the helm.
First working in the shop bagging rolls when she was just nine, some 21 years later Gemma could see it needed bringing up-to-date. Slowly convincing her dad too, last year they replaced the shopfront, then changed the tables and chairs and redecorated, which left only the range untouched.
Gemma comments: “My dad put in a new two pan range when he first took on the shop, I remember it cost £3,000 at the time. We’ve had it serviced and also converted in order to comply with current Gas Safe regulations and insurance requirements, but it was all the original pans.
“After every Colbecks show my dad would come back having spoken to Scotrange and say, “yes, I’m going to change the range”, but then he’d think about shutting the shop - which he really hated doing, it didn’t shut for anything - and the notion would pass. When we started doing up the shop, the range looked so old fashioned, it didn’t fit in with everything and he finally agreed to a new one.”
Built to Donald and Gemma’s requirements with two pans, three stage filtration, curved glass that opens for easy cleaning, touch sensitive timer controls and LED laser cut Tron Cafe signs, their Scotrange was ready to be installed in early January. Sadly, Donald didn’t get to experience the new range he had become so excited about as he passed away the day before installation.
“It was such a shock to us all,” says Gemma, “but I spoke to the girls in the shop and we all agreed to go ahead with the installation. Dad was so excited about it - and he wouldn’t have wanted the shop to be closed for no reason! After it was installed, people were coming in and asking to see the new range as my dad had told everyone about it. It was such a big deal to everyone.”
With the shop open for almost two months now, Gemma is confident her dad would have approved, adding: “At first my dad was of the opinion he couldn’t see how a new range was going to make such a difference, but it does. We basket fry now and the chips are coming out so much drier and crispier. And the filtration is brilliant. It’s much faster than doing it ourselves and the size of the scraps it removes is amazing. Whereas I was dumping oil every week, sometimes twice a week, now it’s every couple of weeks. And even then I’m not dumping much, I’m topping up instead.”
Grateful to Scotrange for their professionalism, help and understanding, Gemma adds: “I can’t thank Scotrange enough. Nothing has been a problem for them at all. I needed help one night and they phoned me back at 10.30pm and talked me through what I was doing wrong and they worked from 5am until 11pm at night to get us back open after the install. My dad would have been so pleased.”
Scotrange 01592 775269 www.scotrange.co.uk