Meeting of the Parliament 17 December 2025
I congratulate my friend and colleague Rachael Hamilton on securing this important and topical debate. We have just been through small business Saturday and, as every speaker has said, we should support our small businesses throughout the year, not just on that one Saturday in December.
I will focus my remarks on one small business and one small business owner in Moray. The minister and I do not agree on an awful lot, but I hope that, when I have concluded my remarks, he will agree with what I am about to say. I want to use this opportunity, on the penultimate day of the parliamentary year, to say a big thank you from our Parliament to a Moray businesswoman who has done so much, not just for her business but for small businesses in Moray, the Highlands, Scotland and across the UK. She is Pearl Hamilton of Pearl’s Pet Care.
Pearl is retiring on Christmas eve after 43 years in business. Pearl started work in her teens on the croft where she was brought up and she has worked throughout her life. When she made her announcement, I reminded her that I had been a regular customer of hers, and I should declare an interest because I have my order in for Christmas eve for chicken food and cider vinegar for the chicken water. When she announced her retirement, I said that she had been in business longer than I had been alive. I meant that as a compliment to show her durability in business through good times and bad.
Pearl has been a stable part of Moray business for so long, starting off in Kinloss and then becoming a stronghold on Tolbooth Street. Last Friday, other traders on Tolbooth Street used their annual Christmas party to throw a surprise retirement party for Pearl. I am told that there would have been some pretty sore heads after it, as it was a very joyous affair.
Pearl just has a way about her. She is great at customer service, whether someone is a regular customer, as I am, or a first-time entrant to her shop. She will find what the customer needs and deliver it with great style and enthusiasm. That is why she has built up such a strong customer base over many years.
Throughout much of her 43 years in business, Pearl was supported by her family. Sadly, her husband Jeff died earlier this year. When I was a councillor on Moray Council, Jeff was an independent councillor for Kinloss and the wider Forres ward. They were a double act. Whenever I think of small business Saturday, I will think of Jeff coming out with Pearl and me to go round the other shops in Forres and Moray, getting our picture taken with our blue boards and supporting the FSB and small business Saturday. Pearl did a power of work with the FSB in Moray and across Scotland. Indeed, she also held national positions with the FSB.
Pearl and Jeff together built up their business to what it became. Jeff has sadly passed away, but Pearl is keen to continue with the pet care element of the business, so she will continue to look after pets in Moray and the Highland area.
When I saw that the motion was about small business Saturday, I thought that it was an opportunity for me to use my four minutes to give my personal thanks to Pearl for what she has provided to Forres, Moray and the wider community, not just through the business that she built up with her family and the support that she has given her customers but through the knowledge and expertise that she was ready and willing to pass on to other businesses in the area. Other businesses in Moray are doing well because of the help and support that they received from Pearl Hamilton.
I say to Pearl from the Scottish Parliament chamber that we are grateful for everything that she has done and we wish her a very long and happy retirement.
18:03