A JOHNSTONE dog grooming service is leading the way for others to follow after winning a prestigious prize.
LoveDog Grooming was crowned Best Dog Grooming Business at the annual Scotlands Business Awards.
The team’s triumph at the event in Glasgow follows hot on the heels of success in the same category at the Renfrewshire Business Awards in October.
Maureen Grant, director of the company, said this latest achievement was something of a surprise.
She told The Gazette: “We’re absolutely over the moon, as we weren’t expecting to win.
“We thought we had a good chance of winning the regional award but we were taken aback when we won the award for the whole of Scotland.
“I think it helped that we’ve got quite a good reputation when it comes to dealing with dogs that are nervous or a bit frightened of being groomed.”
Maureen, from Howwood, started her business from her garage a decade ago before teaming up with Kelly Morrow to create LoveDog in 2015.
Based in Floors Street, it caters to all dog breeds and also offers a daycare service.
Maureen said: “We initially started off in High Street and then we moved to bigger premises about four years ago, so we could open up the daycare as well.
“We are incredibly busy as, during lockdown, people seemed to spend a lot of money on dogs.
“We’ve started puppy daycare classes because a lot of these pups are not used to being left with anyone else or socialising with other dogs and, when they came in to be groomed, they were incredibly nervous because their owners had left them.
“This was because they were so used to being at home with their family during lockdown.”
The team of six will soon be saying goodbye to Maureen’s business partner Kelly, who is starting her own dog grooming service called Woofs A Daisy.
Maureen added: “Kelly is moving on to open her own wee venture next month, so winning this award is quite a nice high for her to leave on.
“I would like to thank all of our customers who have stood by us during the ups and downs of lockdown, as some groomers remained open and we didn’t.
“Our customers were great in understanding that we were just trying to do the right thing.”
To learn more about LoveDog Grooming, visit www.facebook.com/GrantsDogGrooming.
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