Margot Mckinney | The Family Jewels
Author // Shannon Edwards, Place New Farm
Stocking the finest jewellery pieces from renowned designers across the globe, McKinney’s is one of Brisbane’s oldest family run businesses.
It all started back in 1884 in Toowoomba, when John Mckinney begun his business journey.
“My grandfather always wanted to open his own business and when he arrived in Brisbane from Ireland, he jumped on the train and the last stop was Toowoomba so he got off and decided that’s where his business would be,” shares John’s grandson and current owner of Mckinney’s, also John Mckinney.
We sat down with John and his daughter, Margot Mckinney, where they shared the history of the family business as well as the Mckinney empire that Margot has built here in Brisbane’s Emporium.
The original Mckinney's. Photo Credit: Sourced
John Mckinney. Photo Credit: Sourced
How did this all begin?
“We’re shop keepers by nature, and have a long family history in retail,” says Margot.
When my great grandfather, John Mckinney, (let’s call him John senior) arrived in Queensland, he was here to find his gold, so to speak.
It was a very courageous thing he did travelling all the way from Ireland to Australia with no money, knowing no one.
When he decided to open the business in Toowoomba, he noticed that the town was missing a barber shop.
Although John (senior) had never cut anyone’s hair before, he opened his very own barber and tobacconist and it became very successful.
The barber shop was very much a business of necessity - which many of the stores were in those times.
The store remained in Toowoomba for 120 years and my father, John Mckinney, was born in their home right above the store.
John (senior), my grandfather, and my father, were very dynamic retailers and always recognised opportunities in the market, and I suppose that’s how you stay successfully in the market for 135 years.
When did you make the move to Brisbane?
Mckinney's Emporium
In the early 1970’s my father opened a store in Indooroopilly Shopping Town, as it was called then.
It was a huge store which sold almost everything from furniture, electrical goods, bedding, china, jewellery and much, much more.
We had a big lounge where people who were travelling into the city could leave their things, and customers could relax – it was like a Mckinney’s club.
We had a very big collectors business with exclusive limited edition pieces from England.
Over the years the size of the store decreased as we decided to focus on fine china, silverware and jewellery.
Why did you choose to move to Emporium?
Mckinney's Emporium
Emporium really appealed to the family for many reasons.
It’s in such a wonderful location, surrounded by some great suburbs.
It has a big variety of retail operations, many of which are owner operated and we love that you can walk into a store and speak directly with the owner.
We love the proximity of the hotel as it brings many guests to the store from interstate and overseas.
There’s fantastic parking, you can drive around and more often than not get a park right out the front of the store you’re visiting.
I started my own business about 12 years ago, where I design exclusive jewellery pieces using rare and unique gems. A showcase of these will be going into our brand new store here at Emporium, Margot Mckinney.
We also have the Margot Collective store which is a collection of exquisite china pieces from my travels. It’s a whole collection of beautiful, interesting things that I’ve found around the world.
We also recently started V&M which is a unique store that showcases emerging Australian designers.
We’ve got a really nice avenue here.
What do you think your businesses give to the Emporium precinct and surrounding area?
Service and quality are the two most important things to us.
We stock some particular designs throughout our store that you will not find anywhere else in Australia, so that is something very special in itself.
We see that these unique pieces have drawn people in, as a destination for people to visit.
The Emporium precinct and surrounding suburbs are very trendy, and I believe that our stores add to that.