Ross and Kate Lear are retiring, closing Ross Lear Jewellers after 50 years in the trade and more than 35 years in business in Mudgee.
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The Lears are now clearing stock with a 50 per cent off sale before they close, but they have no plans to leave the town where they have raised their family and made their home.
The couple had a jewellery business in Sydney before the birth of their first son led them to move to raise their family on a rural property.
After first establishing themselves on Church Street in the late 1970s, Ross Lear Jewellers moved into the Town Centre when it opened, and has since occupied three shops in the centre.
When the business opened, its jewellery was largely made to order and the Lears carried minimal stock, but the focus has shifted to retail with just a few pieces now being manufactured.
The Lears said they had been fortunate to have many long-serving dedicated staff, without whom Mrs Lear said the business could not have gone on.
Mr Lear said Mudgee was a quiet country town when the family arrived, and its steady growth and the boom of the last ten years had been “staggering”.
“The highlight has been watching the business grow, watching Mudgee grow, and being able to work and live in a place you really like,” Mr Lear said.
Mr Lear said when the family first arrived, local farmers shared an unbelievable amount of advice and help for the family’s property, which he said he said he still remembered daily.
He said it had been a pleasure to see his children grow up in a nice environment, and he was sure they would have stayed if their career paths hadn’t called them away.
Mr Lear said that while he was sad to close the shop and finish jewellery making, he would most miss the people he had met and the customers he had been able to serve.
One of the great pleasures of running the business has been meeting different people and seeing some customers start by buying their first gifts of jewellery, then an engagement ring, and then gifts for a growing family.
“It is interesting, having somebody who comes in here with no idea what they want, but it’s something that they’re hopefully going to have for years to come,” he said.
“You try to get what they want and get it right.”
