A small business started by a Glasgow mum has boomed into the biggest independent children’s clothing shop in Scotland. 

Claire Cunningham-Stirrup started selling clothes from a tiny stall in an effort to provide clothes she couldn't find for her daughter. 

Kiddie Boutique was started ten years ago in Braehead shopping centre stall before moving into a retail unit three years later. 

Now she has moved into her newest premises - there time the size of her previous shop.

Glasgow Times:  

She said: "My daughter, Rebecca was born ten years ago and I couldn’t get the brands of clothing I wanted for her.

“That’s when I realised there was a gap in the market and very few shopping centres had independent kids’ wear stores. 

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“So, after a lot of research into what products were available at the right price, I decided to start selling quality children’s clothing from what is known as a retail merchandising unit only a few metres long.

“I was stunned how popular it was and very quickly we became extremely busy and it has stayed that way ever since. After three years we had become so successful, it was time to move to a shop and I leased one of the retail units in the upper mall.

“Seven years on we had yet again outgrown our shop and we needed to move to bigger premises in the mall.”

Glasgow Times:

Her store has been crowned Best Children’s Wear Store three times and Best Customer Services awards in the shopping centre's retail awards.

When the store was opened in 2010, Claire spent ten-hours days each day of the week but she now employs 25 people.

She added: 

“I definitely thought of it as my business baby and now with us moving to a bigger store, it seems like my baby has grown up and is like a teenager heading into adulthood.”

“To be able to achieve this in the middle of a pandemic really is amazing. I can’t thank Braehead enough for their continued support throughout our first ten years in business.

“You never know how a business is going to go when you first start out, but when I realised I was on to something, my ambition was to eventually run the biggest independent children’s wear company in Scotland.

“And that’s what has happened.”