Business owner talks about ‘good of community’ after fire devastated two of her premises at Fairways Business Park
A business owner has spoken about the good of people in the Inverness community after two of her business premises were destroyed in a devastating fire.
Julia Macleay owns SJ Travel Centre and SJ Gifts, the latter of which was set to open for its first day yesterday.
However, on Sunday night, a car was purposely driven into Fairways Business Park and then set alight, with several premises being ravaged by the blaze.
Police Scotland are currently on the hunt for the man behind the attack.
Since the incident, Julia has had countless offers of goodwill to help herself and her staff get back on their feet.
She said: “We have been given a new office down at the Longman and Highland Office Equipment is donating our desks and chairs. We have people offering us printers too.
“One gentleman offered us an annexe in his garden to work from and my son’s driving instructor also said he would help. Everyone has rallied around and done something.
“We have seen the good in people and there are a lot of people out there who care.”
SJ Gifts was a new venture for Julia, with the till just having been fitted last Thursday. Less than a week later, she lost all the stock in it.
“I started doing gift hampers during Covid and then had an online gift shop”, she explained.
“I just thought I would open a shop and the whole lot went down in the fire.”
Julia has owned her travel company SJ Travel Centre since 2015 and thankfully everything was backed up on the cloud.
As the Inverness Courier was speaking with Julia, they managed to log into their computers and were very happy to find everything was exactly where it was supposed to be.
She said: “We have a loyal customer base from the travel company and have plenty of bookings. After Covid we no longer have paper files and everything is online, which is a huge relief.
“But in the gift shop, we had so many beautiful things. At the moment, I don’t know if I have the strength to build it all up again but I’m not making any rash decisions.”
With over seven staff, Julia is now just trying to get everyone sorted out and back to business with what they can do.
Having lived in Inverness all of her life, she said the fire has come as a ‘big shock’. She found out that her premises were ablaze after her son drove past at the time and called her.
“My son was coming home past the distributor road and he must have come in just after the fire engine”, explained Julia.
“I then came, along with my colleague. I wasn’t sure what it was that caused it at first and then we saw the car.
“It’s horrible. I’m born and bred here, and it’s always felt like a nice and safe town. But this incident changes opinions.”
