Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Sad news for Crieff High Street institution

Post Thumbnail

Perthshire is to lose another retail institution with one of Crieff’s oldest businesses set to close.

Established in 1902 and run by four generations of the same family, High Street hardware store Frank Thomson Ltd is to shut at the end of the month with the loss of two full-time and two part-time jobs.

The news has been met with sadness locally as the shop, owners and staff were known to all in the town.

The closure comes as Perth learned that it was losing the china shop Watsons of Perth, set up just two years before the Crieff business.

Concern has been expressed that the loss of independent stores diminishes the draw of a place as a shopping destination

The much-loved hardware store had hoped to weather the storm of economic difficulties it faced when late last year Crieff Hydro lent its support.

Under a new arrangement the Thomson family continued to own and manage the building with the Hydro throwing its weight behind the store.

Unfortunately the effort has failed with the two companies admitting defeat after a poor summer of sales and as winter approaches.

In a joint statement Creiff Hydro CEO Stephen Leckie and the store’s owner Jamie Thomson said: “Whilst we’ve always loved the idea of keeping Frank Thomson as an independent shop on the High Street, it’s become increasingly clear to us over the past year that this is a really difficult retail market with falling footfall on the High Street and tough market conditions generally.

“We’ve got our heads together at the moment to plan the next steps for the shop but no firm details we can share just yet.”

Mr Leckie said he had hoped that the revamped frontage and updated stock might have given it a new lease of life but they now accepted they were unable to keep the business going.

He described it as “the end of an era” but said the economic issues they faced were similar elsewhere.

“This isn’t just a Crieff issue – these are very difficult times for high street shops which are the heartbeat of the town centre,” he said.

Against the trend Perth’s oldest jewellers T. Paterson, which was established in 1832, has just announced it is taking over the adjacent premises in Perth’s High Street and expanding.