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Book company  is Gaelic Business of the Year        29/11/12

Acair Ltd, the Gaelic book publishing company based in Stornoway, is the Gaelic Business of the Year 2012.

The competition, which is run by Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG) with support from Highlands and  Islands Enterprise (HIE), recognises the commendable work which many companies do in their own sector whilst doing it through the medium of Gaelic.

As well as acknowledging the excellent work being undertaken by many businesses in keeping Gaelic to the forefront of all that they do, it is hoped that the competition will also encourage other businesses to strive to do more through the medium of Gaelic.

Acair is a limited company, which was formed in Stornoway in 1997 to provide resources for a new bilingual project. That work continued and expanded when Gaelic Medium Education was introduced in the mid 80s.

To this day they still publish and sell Gaelic books, particularly for children, and they aim to create new, attractive and interesting books that people will find appealing and that will also help them to learn Gaelic.

As part of their efforts in selling their books, they have been making effective use of websites and social media to boost the industry and also to promote Gaelic on the internet.

The award panel was encouraged by the way in which Gaelic was at the heart of all that Acair do within the office, dealing with customers in the shop, but particularly how they used new technology to promote the image of Gaelic amongst young people and learners of the language.