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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Eric Gilzean was born in Scotland in 1929. He immigrated to the United States more than 50 years ago, settling in Utah.
Nearly each year, he would travel to Scotland to visit family and friends. Frequently, he received requests to bring back different items like a Harris Tweed coat or a kilt. It got to the point where he spent more time looking for merchandise than vacationing. One day while in Scotland, a lad even asked Eric what the name of his store was.
Before long, Eric realized there might be a great business opportunity in importing and selling merchandise from Scotland. So he opened Edinburgh Castle in 1974.
The first store was in Salt Lake City at Trolley Square. About 17 years ago, Eric moved the store to its current location on Salt Lake's Main Street.
When I visited the store, I was impressed by the wide variety of items available to purchase, ranging from authentic caps from the British Isles to family crests with their associated tartans. Although the store is relatively small, Eric tells me he carries more than one thousand different tartans. A tartan is the plaid fabric from which kilts are made. In Scotland, each clan has its own tartan.
Even with the variety displayed in the store, it's impossible to judge the size of the business merely by the size of the store. During the last few years, Eric has been steadily increasing his presence on the Internet, while improving his rankings on search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
Now, Eric estimates that 70 percent of his business is done online. When people want to rent full Scottish outfits for a wedding or when they want to purchase items from his store, they simply order it from the Web site. Eric has shipped things as far as New Zealand. And strange as it might seem, he's even had customers from Great Britain.
For Zions Bank, this is Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
