Ayrshire estate flocks to supermarket as owner spends thousands on special event

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A big-hearted Ayrshire businessman treated his community to a free winter wonderland event with live reindeer and alpacas on display.

Generous Imran Ali dug deep at Christmas and spent thousands of pounds creating a winter wonderland for patrons of his Bourtreehill Supermarket.

The Asian Business Award winner organised for real-life reindeer and alpacas to come along to the event. Santa and his elves even stopped by for a quick cup of hot chocolate and every child was thoroughly spoiled with loads of free sweeties.

Imran said: "This was all about the kids and everyone had a brilliant time."The crowds were wrapped around the building and one person who has been part of the community for 40 years said they were the biggest crowd they've ever seen in the village centre."With the cost of living crisis and inflation, we wanted to put something on for the whole community."I wanted to do something different and organised for reindeer and alpacas to come along to show the kids something they wouldn't normally see."It was a fantastic response from the community and I was so happy with the huge turnout considering the weather."Normally, at this time of year, the reindeer would cost at least £1,000 for the few hours of hire but we kept it all free so there was no burden on the community."Everyone was in the spirit and the team all dressed up to hand out sweets to the kids and we gave away free merchandise too. "A lot of my suppliers supported us in the run-up to the event because they appreciate that we actually pass on savings to customers and were happy to help us."Imran and his team were recently recognised for their efforts in their community at the Scottish Asian Business Awards last month.He added: "We were thrilled to