News

Pet shop couple to retire - by PAUL BARRY

April 06, 2006

A POPULAR couple who have run a pet shop in North Camp for 25 years are retiring to spend time on their narrowboat.

But their shop is in safe hands – it will be run by a woman who has been there for 12 years since she first came in asking for a Saturday job.

David and Kay Bright took over Pets Quest in North Camp in 1981, when it was located in Camp Road.

They soon moved into their current shop in Lynchford Road and when a neighbouring shop became empty, they seized the chance to expand by knocking through a wall and doubling the size of their store.

David is well known for joking with the customers and he has a strange knack of charming them despite offering many gruff observations.

The couple have been semi-retired for the last two years and the shop has been mainly run by Kathia Underwood.

As of this Saturday, Kathia will now take on the full-time running of the shop with help from her mother Jan MacGregor.

David, 63, and Kay, 52, say their time in North Camp has been wonderful.

Kay said: “We have such a lovely clientelle and they are the people we will miss. People come to North Camp from as far as Basingstoke, Bracknell, Reading and Farnham.”

Also retiring is the shop’s popular pet, Benson the cockatoo, who will be cared for by a friend of the couple who has a large conservatory for him to live in.

The couple say the area is popular because there are so many one-off shops in North Camp and some shoppers are tired of towns where there are the same chain retailers as in every other town.

Kay and David, who live in Cove, plan to spend plenty of time on their narrowboat Adagio and at home with their cat Indie. The couple have a son Robert, 36, who is an civil engineer in Northern Ireland, and a daughter Karen, 34, a website designer in Melbourne, Australia.

David was the first person to book an advertisement with the Star when the paper was founded in 1977. At the time he was assistant general manager at the Army & Navy store in Camberley.

Kay said: “North Camp has been a lovely area to have a shop in. The people are fabulous.”

Picture: HANDOVER: Kay and David Bright with Kathia Underwood, who joined as a Saturday girl 12 years ago and will now run the shop