Building a rural business empire on the back of coffee beans

The harbour town of Kirkcudbright is probably not the first place you would look for a young entrepreneur building up his business empire.

However, in a cosy cafe over a cappuccino, Lewis Graham - Lewie to everyone, has just been recognised for his efforts.

Along with business partner Robyn Goodare, who is from the town, they took over Feast a few years ago and started the coffee bean roasting business Kirk-Coo-Brew.

And, just over the road, is their Italian restaurant Portobello.

Up to 20 staff might not sound a lot but, in a small place like Kirkcudbright, that makes you a not insignificant employer at the age of 27.

Lewie - originally from Herefordshire - has just picked up a South of Scotland Thistle award.

He said the region had its own challenges and rewards in terms of running a business.

"It feels quite isolated sometimes - not always in a bad way - sometimes in a really good way, we feel like we're separate from the rest of the world," he said.

"But the middle of winter can be really quiet and hard - it's a lot colder here than it is where I'm from as well."

Finding staff, too, can be tricky.

"At the moment I'm looking for a chef to run the Italian restaurant in the evening," he said.

"I have luckily found someone, but that search was almost impossible without doing word of mouth - there's no way you can put up a job advert online and find who you're after.

"But if I was two hours north in any of the big cities that wouldn't have been a problem at all."

However, he said there were other reasons to be jealous of what Galloway has to offer.

"As soon as you talk to people who are living in the big city, they're like, wow, I wish I was living in the countryside, running my own thing, doing mostly what I want a lot of the time," he added.

Locals, too, whether they have moved to the town or have lived there all their lives, enjoy staying there.

"They will all say that it does feel like living on holiday a lot of the time," said Lewie.

"We get fantastic weather for most of the year - it's never really cats and dogs more than a day.

"Opportunity here is really good because the costs are fairly low, you can make what you want of something."

He is well aware that the south of Scotland has allowed him to try his hand in business without the same level of risk he would face elsewhere.

"If I wanted to do something like this in Edinburgh or in England, it would be double and triple the price everywhere and it wouldn't be accessible," he said.

"So I think what people don't know about rural Scotland is that it is really accessible and there's lots of opportunity.

"Tourism's good here and it's really pretty and I think that means a lot to me."

For the time being, Robyn has told him there will be no more expansion and Lewie said he would only open something that was within "touching distance" of his current ventures and his staff.

"I've started employing people at 24 years old and it's a lot of work, but it's really one of the most rewarding things," he said.

"The job is getting people the job that they want.

"We have incredibly high retention - we don't lose people at all, unless to Uni or school.

"But all of our full-timers have been here the whole time we have, which is really nice - it's their project too."