About Us
The Shop with a Concience!
The Highland Weigh, born in January 2022. To give Highlanders the opportunity to reduce the amount of plastic they use, reduce food waste and shop local.
Our Story
The first real change I made was to buy a bamboo toothbrush. I’ve since discovered that a bamboo toothbrush is the most common first purchase on a journey to reducing plastic - the humble toothbrush. Such a small thing, but it led me to think ‘what next’? I found it a challenge to reduce my plastic consumption whist shopping in the Highlands. But I was spurred on by the snippets of information I came across : microplastics in our food chain; the land mass required to produce the food that’s thrown away every year (the size of China) and the mere 12 minutes that the average single-use plastic bag is used for (which will take 1000 years to decompose). The mission became to create a store that offered plastic-free food, toiletries and cleaning products. To reduce food wastage by allowing customers to buy just the quantities they need.
Within the store we envisioned an ethical, vegetarian coffee shop selling organic coffee, produced by solar power. The vision of The Highland Weigh was born. We don’t profess to being a new concept. It’s an old concept, that our parents and grandparents will recall but with a modern twist with self-serve scales, gravity dispensers and a peanut butter machine. We can’t compete with the buying power of the large supermarkets, but we can strive to bring you the best local products, plastic free and at the most competitive prices we can manage.
The Highland Weigh, a social enterprise, founded in January 2022. We are all at different stages on our zero-waste journey and frankly, we would just love you to visit us and have fun weighing your lentils, making a batch of peanut butter with your kids, and drinking your coffee by our wood burner.
Because apparently - ‘Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there’ Rumi
We’ll see you soon, at The Highland Weigh.
Private company limited by guarantee without share capital
Company number SC728082
Our Team
Amanda MacArthur
Managing Director
Amanda Macarthur lives in Inverness with her partner, two cats, and a potting shed. Her professional career as a nurse with a specialist interest in Diabetes led to The Highland Weigh. Nairn was the obvious choice for the first store as she has family there and fond childhood memories.
Neil Mclean
Director
Neil Mclean spent formative years in India before moving to Bathgate. With 20 years in the social enterprise world, he's passionate about using this model to solve social and environmental issues, which he brings to The Highland Weigh.
Eelco De Jong
Director
Eelco grew up in the Netherlands but moved to Scotland to chase wilder landscapes. As a forester, avid mountaineer, and camper, he's deeply connected to the outdoors and witnesses the effects of litter on the land. Eelco is fervent about transforming our environmental impact.
Cath Fox
Director
Cath, a Nairn native, spent decades overseas, advancing her corporate procurement career. Returning to Nairn, she started a family and her interior design business. Cath's fervor for The Highland Weigh is driven by a desire to bring change to the local community and foster a sustainable future.
Sean Johnston
Business & Marketing Manager
Sean Johnston lived in North Uist until the age of 5 when he moved to Inverness. When he isn’t working on the marketing and IT aspects of The Highland Weigh he’s invariably hillwalking, mountain-biking, or drinking coffee.