Life and Times: Shop owner sells up after 35 years in retail

Mr Johnstone was born on September 16, 1941 in Pitlochry, an only child to parents Clinton and Annie Johnstone.

His career did not start with dreams as a businessman. Instead, at 16, he enrolled in a course as an apprentice of an accountancy firm. After six months, he decided not to continue and started working in his father's store, Clinton Johnstone.

After five years, he decided to open his own convenience store and in 1962 he opened his first business on Granton Road. The business was successful as a food shop and grocer.

The same year he married his first wife, the mother of his son David. Unfortunately, after 13 years, the couple divorced.

In 1975, Mr Johnstone invested in a second shop named WD Johnstone on East Trinity Road. For a few years, he managed both stores before selling the shop on Granton Road.

WD Johnstone began as a small, humble food shop. Within a decade, Mr Johnstone expanded the store by buying and connecting the neighbouring four shops, originally a hairdressers, a haberdashery, a stationary shop and a homebakers.

A year after the purchase, he married his second wife, Katherine Duffy who gave birth to his second son, Colin in May 1982. Mr Johnston is now widowed after her death 13 years ago.

Mr Johnstone paid tribute to his customers' loyalty and friendship.

He said after the opening of a new supermarket in 2008 he lost a lot of business.

Although he has managed to regain some of the loss, he admits business has not fully returned and it was a major factor to his decision to sell the store.

He said that "new blood" was needed to restore the business, which was sold last month. Mr Johnstone said he wanted the new owners to be somebody genuine who his previous customers could trust.

David Higgins from Christie & Co managed the sale. He said: "When Mr Johnstone approached us recently indicating he wished to retire, he asked us to market the business quietly to operators who were already known to us and who would be in a position to take over the shop without too much fuss."

The new owners, Mr and Mrs Mathur already run a successful convenience store in Colinton. Mr Johnstone is so at ease with their takeover that he goes to visit the store, everyday, for a cup of coffee.

He said he was happy that the owners had retained the staff, which includes his son, Colin, who competed at the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games winning two gold and one silver and bronze medal.

To celebrate his retirement, he looks forward to treating himself to a new set of golf clubs. With the extra spare time, he plans to go fishing more and reinvest in a forgotten passion, oil painting.