Falkirk District Gift Card scheme raises nearly £10,000

The District Towns Gift Card scheme allows people to buy anything from £5 to £500 on a card

More than £9,000 worth of cards were sold in the run-up to Christmas.

BID manager Elaine Grant said the success was all down to the people and businesses in Falkirk District.

“I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part. If you bought a card for yourself, as a gift or for a charity donation, thank you. If you are a business owner or employer who gifted cards to your team as a reward after a tough year, we’d like to thank you. And, if you are a shop who participated in the scheme, you’ve played a big part in making this take off so well in its first year.

“We wanted to encourage people to spend money within Falkirk District, and after such a tough year for shops in our area we felt this mattered more than ever.

“More than 140 people and organisations stepped up and bought cards as presents or as charity gifts, meaning all that money will stay in the local economy, supporting local jobs.”

The District Towns Gift Card scheme allows people to buy anything from £5 to £500 on a card, and redemption is available at a wide variety of firms, including independent and national traders within the District Towns.

Many businesses in the Falkirk Council area, which includes the town, as well as Bo’ness, Denny, Grangemouth and Stenhousemuir, have taken part.

The scheme was developed by Falkirk Delivers, which manages the local Business Improvement District (BID), as part of a UK-wide Town and City Gift Cards programme.

Elaine added: “We know a lot of people have already started spending their gift cards, especially if they got them in their Christmas stocking, which has been much appreciated. But if you haven’t already used yours, don’t forget to spend it; our local traders need our support in 2021 as much as they did in 2020.”

There are more than 100 businesses in the Falkirk area which accept the District Towns Gift Card. It takes the form of a prepaid Mastercard, which can be used up to 12 months from purchase.

Falkirk District Towns is one of the newest among 50 towns, cities and regions in the UK to join the Town and City Gift Card programme, from Scottish fintech Miconex.

You can still buy the District Towns Gift Card - see the Falkirk Delivers website for more information.

Employers can make bulk orders of the gift card.

For more information about how the scheme works, visit the website.