On a roll
with the ROX boys These Mitchells get everywhere. Here I am in alien territory in the Rox jewellery emporium in Aberdeen’s hustling and bustling Union Square shopping mall and who do I meet but Glaswegian gemmologist Grant Mitchell, founder of the Rox Diamonds and Thrills shopping dynasty in 2001. He is with his business partner Kyron Keogh, who sounds like he should be Irish but qualified as a surveyor at de Montfort University, Leicester. Whatever could these two men, both born in 1971, have in common to team up? Well, the answer is very simple. They have been pals since they met on childhood holidays in Majorca. “It 86
sounds highly improbable,” says Grant, who attended the prestigious Glasgow Academy and qualified at North Glasgow College, “but it has worked out amazingly well. Our flagship store is in the Argyll Arcade in Glasgow and we have other outlets in that city but we liked the idea of moving into the new Union Square development in Aberdeen. It has proved to be a terrific move and has helped to take our annual turnover to more than £10million.” Both are family men based in the west of Scotland. Kyron, who is in charge of the dayto-day running of the Rox stores, is married with two children and likes music, cycling and rugby. Grant is married with three children
and says his hobbies are photography, art and travel. Their proudest moment in business - and they have more than 10,000 diamonds in stock – came last year when they were voted by their peers the UK independent retailers of the year and received the accolade at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. “That was the real icing on the cake,” says Grant, “and follows a similar award in Scotland.” The lads try to bring a bit of fizz to the shopping experience so look out for party times ahead in Aberdeen.
Grant left, Peter Middle and Kyron right