Date :
06/12/2013
Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) has unveiled the three winners of its £30,000 Collaboration Prize. One of the winners – the Scottish Mountain Bike Consortium – is a group of private sector companies from Tayside, Fife and Stirlingshire.
The new consortium co-operative brings together small businesses with an interest in Mountain Biking in a unique collaboration which aims to make Central Scotland the UK’s top family-friendly mountain biking destination. It aims to capture a slice of the cycling tourism market in Scotland, estimated to be worth £240m.
Set up by CDS, the competition aims to encourage businesses in Scotland to consider collaborating and pitch their idea for a new consortium co-operative. The three winning concepts each receive a cash prize of £5,000 and up to £5,000 of support. The prize is supported by the Scottish Tourism Alliance, Creative Scotland and Scotland Food and Drink.
Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing said: “Our nation has a rich heritage of innovating in business to drive growth; today we see this further evidenced by way of this collaboration”.
Tom Durham, chairman of the Scottish Mountain Bike Consortium, said: “Winning the Collaboration Prize will be instrumental in our ability to get the wheels in motion for our consortium. We want to make mountain biking the ultimate family-friendly adventure activity.
“Since our journey began we have built up a high level of trust between members through the process of working together. We joined the group as individual companies but we were soon working towards a common goal that will benefit us all.”
For more information on CDS visit www.cdscotland.co.uk