Anna Blackburn: A sparkling performance

Family-owned jewellery business Beaverbrooks was shining brightly in 2019 as it celebrated its centenary and the most financially successful year in its history. And then it was 2020.

As managing director Anna Blackburn explains: “We were on the crest of a wave. Then we came out of our centenary year and into lockdown – from the highest of highs to the lowest low.”

Stores closed their doors, uncertainty was in the air and, like retail businesses across the globe, the St Annes based company was plunged into a new world of the unknown.

It is fair to say it has coped extremely well. In fact, it can even be said the Beaverbrooks has had a good pandemic. To borrow the government’s slogan, it has built back better.