Popular Falkirk family jeweller celebrates half century

Donald Corbett Jewellers on the High Street is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023, with the family business having been founded in 1973 by Elizabeth and Donald Senior.

The couple obtained premises in Callendar Riggs, next door to Bishop’s Department Store and round the corner from The Charioteer pub.

Donald Jnr, who now runs the shop with sister Laura Wilkie, said: “The shop was small and had been a ladies clothes shop run by Eva Linton who was retiring so she sold the shop to us. There was a pillar which had been decorated as a tree so the joke with customers was that we had more branches than H Samuel. The shop was constantly very busy with a great local following, always helped by being near the heavily-used bus station.”

In those days the second generation of the Corbett family – Donald and Laura – helped out after school and at weekends.

Plans to build Callendar Square Shopping Centre meant a compulsory purchase order was placed on the shop, something Donald said the family tried to stall for as long as possible so as not to lose their livelihood. Meanwhile the Corbetts bought another property in Glebe Street as Short’s the Grocers was closing down due to retiral.

Donald explained: “For about a year we struggled to run Callendar Riggs whilst doing up Glebe Street and ultimately opening it. Running two shops really stretched us but eventually we reached a reasonable deal with the council and then concentrated on Glebe Street. With its two display windows and larger footprint we were able to extend our stock and our customer base grew and grew.”

After eight years, the family looked to get a more prominent location within the town centre and moved to their current location on the High Street below the Steeple.

“Leeds Permanent Building Society had merged with the Halifax so our current premises had actually lain empty for quite a while,” Donald explained. “Historically it had previously been a jewellers and Doak’s the Grocers, amongst others and had even been two shops. After long negotiations we took on the building which was in quite bad shape and needed a lot of attention having been built more than 200 years before.

“After re-doing the frontage and adding in the two new display windows we found the location and window space a great advantage, increasing our stock and adding all sorts of new ranges.

"Our wonderful customers followed us up to beside The Steeple and we added many more. Our staff also doubled in size which was an added bonus.”

It’s not all been plain sailing for the family as they have had to ride many storms over the last five decades including economic recessions, rocketing gold prices, wars, the rise of e-commerce, the Covid-19 pandemic and the current cost of living crisis.

Donald believes the focus on excellent customer service, bringing value for money by charging far less than city prices and keeping their stock fresh and varied have been key to the business’ success over the years.

He said: “We have luckily had the loyalty of many customers, now even two and three generations of the same families. We are one of the very oldest family businesses in the town. I am so delighted to reach this wonderful milestone which we couldn’t have done without our lovely, loyal customers. Thank you to the people of the Falkirk area and beyond for all your support. We hope to be offering top quality at reasonable prices with great customer service for many more years.”