We are on a mission to:
work with people to design heritage inspired solutions to community challenges that build wealth and health in our community.

POP is an acronym for the People Of Place

The People of Place shop (POP shop), is designed around the needs people living and working in our community, particularly women working freelance and developing businesses around care and health challenges and social enterprises.

Located in the heart of Dunoon on Hillfoot Street, the POP shop is the physical shopfront used for retail and a place for local freelancers and social enterprises to use. You can see a full list of our members and regular collaborators here>

Community wealth building and Fair work

A key philosophy of POP Shop Enterprises CIC is our approach to partnership working and community wealth building. By developing and delivering projects in close collaboration with the Dunoon Community Development Trust (DCDT), our work responds directly to local need and wherever possible, employ the skills of people who call Dunoon and Cowal home.

Critically, we use these collaborative projects to provide meaningful work and self-development opportunities aimed at women, who are frequently excluded from career progression and secure work in our rural, remote small town

🌿 The Dunoon & Kirn Local Place Plan: POP Shop members delivered the vital action research and community engagement needed to design our town's green future.
📍What’s On Dunoon: Providing ongoing professional digital, design, and marketing services to support this community-owned information platform and town-wide brand.

Dunoon Goes POP

The Dunoon Goes POP brand and product offer being developed by our members. It is a living example of how we use the process of enterprise development as a route to collaboration, accessing funding, creating work and greener place-based solutions to local challenges identified through research.

We have taken the heritage of the George Stirling Soft Drinks factory and explored how this story can be developed into products and services that strengthen the local heritage offer in the to.

Using garden botanicals, herbs, fruits and spices we blend drinks and storytelling, regenerating underused spaces into thriving gardens at the same time.

It started with George

Place-based research into the history of Dunoon’s high street and the George Stirling soft drinks factory inspired the beginning of Dunoon Goes POP!

In the 1880s, an enterprising pharmacist called George Stirling opened a soft drinks factory in Dunoon behind his shop on Argyll Street. The factory continued to produce and distribute soft drinks in reusable bottles until the late 1970s.

Learn more about George, soft drinks making and our approach to developing a new enterprise inspired by this legacy, by watching the Dunoon Goes POP intro videos.

Watch now

POP is shaking things up

We want to bring soft drinks production back to Dunoon in a way that minimises our impact on the planet and maximises our positive impact on the community.

Buy our cordials

Buy now

We want to connect people to the fascinating heritage and sustainable future of soft drinks-making through practical workshops, growing ingredients and sharing local heritage stories. To achieve more and focus our work on the needs in our community, we will continue to work in partnership with local stakeholders, including Dunoon Community Development Trust.

With funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, Dunoon Goes POP has entered a new phase of development through an interactive heritage project called Convalescent Coast. Read more here>

As we refine our drinks-making process and develop our facilities, we'll create opportunities for other enterprising people who are keen to learn about doing businesses in a sustainable and carbon-conscious way.

Raise a glass with POP

We run drinks experiences, workshops and events so that you can get to know the stories behind our soft drinks, how to make drinks and grow your own ingredients.

Browse events

Visit the POP drinks garden

Rhubarb, apples, lavender and lemons. Our new Dunoon Goes POP garden is filled with flavoursome plants that can be used in drinks making and will inspire you when you attend our events.

Find out more