Business news of
Irish Jewellery interest at end of October 2007.
Many Thanks to all
You Reporters And to all our Nice Customers! Keep
reporting. Enjoy!
On left is myself and Terry Foley, Hilser’s, Cork at
the RJI Dance last weekend.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Findings
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
N N reports:
Johnny,
Sales were very good in October and more than made up for a
mediocre September. Already, things look good for November. The
gold, silver and platinum prices are very high at the moment, and the prognosis
is for continuous further rises in the near future. Jewellers should
watch their marked prices carefully, as replacement stock will be considerably
more expensive. My advice to all our customers is buy loads of metal and
stock now !!!!
Best regards as
always, Enan NN Enterprises
++++++++++++++
A wholesaler
reports:
Hi Johnny
Business for us is just going up and up. We had a brilliant
year last year and if we did the same we would have been happy. But our staff are under such pressure with non stop orders,
hopefully it will stay like this. This year for us is going to be
the best ever. At this moment up
by at least 40% and travelling.
Regards
End of wholesalers
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
WEST:
Hi Johnny,
October slightly down on last year. Sept VERY slow. Hopefully the
calm before the storm
Regards
++++++++
North East:
Hi Johnny,
Sorry to miss a few reports, I was 'out of town' and missed deadline. October turned out a great month after a slow start.
Diamond rings were
same in units but up in value while Wedding Rings were up both in units and
value.
Mixed jewellery was a bit of a see-saw some units up other down but overall the
value was up. Both Watches and Gifts had lower units
and higher value so overall we were happy.
Trend has been for most of the year that while our unit sales are down we are
getting our figures with higher ticketed sales and October painted the same
picture.
As a result we are cutting back on those slower lines and replacing with more higher ticket items.
It all down to the next six or seven weeks so lets
hope we have what the punters are after.
Keep up the great work, regards to all for a super pre Christmas trading.
Regards,
+++++++++++++++++++
WEST:
Dear Johnny
September was a quiet month with nothing much happening. Sales were down
and customers didn't seem to be in the mood to buy!
October was the exact opposite with sales up 32% and
customers happy to purchase instead of wanting to 'think about it'.
I always get nervous at this time of the year as the stock rolls in in vast quantities! Fingers crossed!!!
Thanks as always for your dedication and I love reading the reports every
months.
Kind regards
End of retailers.
++++++++++++
Retail Jewellers
Eileen Moore, President Retail Jewellers of
A brief report on the RJI Dance.
A lovely hotel, the
Equally
important were the acoustics of the ballroom. Perfect. You know by now that I hate noise at
a social occasion. The only reason I go
is for the chat and to meet people I have not seen in an age. I like to converse also, otherwise
why be there at all.
With the smooth, quiet ceiling and walls I found that it was
possible to converse, loudly, with all of the folks at our table for ten. Usually you have
to shout because all the other hundred and thirty people are shouting also. So top marks for
sound. Damien
Duggan was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening and did it manfully. The speeches were
mercifully short, the shortest that I can remember. Thanks Damian. And the spot prizes and awards and winners of
golf and so on were all got over with first. All the spots winners were called
from admission tickets (no need to buy them, nice) and your scribe got the
fifteenth ticket called out. I was offered the choice of all the
remaining spots, and there were plenty
to choose from. Of course I selected the IJA wine which
I had bought myself and knew its provenance. Good choice.
Later
the band was nice a soothing for the most part. Not Too loud! We could talk over that also. I finally went
to bed at 0245 hours. Great breakfast
too and served till
All
in all a good night.
Next year it will be in
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A
reporter says:
I go with others who
want the RJI to move to after Christmas when there is not so much on locally
that we have to go to ------------------that’s why I have missed so many over
the last few years.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Here is Fred
Argue and wife Daphne at the RJI Annual Dinner Dance 2007.
Fred is Chairman of the Irish Jewellers Association. [foto John Condron]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
New charity
Jewellery range offered.
On behalf of DFS
Imports Ltd, I am pleased to announce the successful launch of our latest range
of jewellery "Charming". The "Charming" collection
is a range of silver and 9ct gold charm products which has been created to
raise funds for "The Marie Keating
Foundation". €20 from every piece sold will be donated to The Marie
Foundation. I am delighted to announce that so far 75
retail jewellery shops have agreed to be stockists for this unique product and
we are waiting to get confirmation from a further 20 shops. We
will be involved in some very high profile advertising in the next few
weeks. Full details on this project can
be found on our website www.charming.ie We have set a
target of selling 5000 pieces between now and Christmas which will raise a very
significant amount of money (€100,000) for this very worthwhile cause.
I would like
to take this opportunity to thank all our customers who are working with us on
this project and I look forward to a very busy season ahead.
Derek Raleigh
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Left: John Condron of Fado (who
has only recently been elected as President of the Federation of Jewellery
Manufacturers in
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Crafts Council of
Hello again Johnny
I contacted you during the summer about advertising the position of jewellery
course trainer with the Crafts Council of Ireland. This position has not
yet been filled and am wondering if it would be
possible for you to include the attached advertisement in you next newsletter.
Many thanks for your help.
Best wishes
Amanda Walsh Education Programme
Administrator Crafts Council of
Ireland (CCoI) Castle Yard Kilkenny
Tel: 00 353 (0) 56 7761804 Fax: 00 353
(0) 56 7763754 E-mail: amanda@ccoi.ie For information on
CCoI and the Irish Crafts Industry see our website: http://www.ccoi.ie
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Johnny, the Jewellery Manufacturers (FJMI) are looking to run a number of courses in 2008 and 2009. I came across a company in
Thanks,
Eoin McDonnell Training and Education FJMI
DiamondJewellery@Gmail.com
Thanks Johnny! Eoin
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John & Stephen McGonigle tell us:
Dear
The last couple of months have been quite a
busy time for us. First of all we had the Tempus exhibition in
Here is the link to that shoot:
http://watchinghorology.com/2007/10/mcgonigle-tourbillon-photomontage.html
KokChoon also posted and excellent review of
the watch on the Horomundi forum.
http://www.horomundi.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2779
The last major event that we exhibited at was
in
http://ahci.watchprosite.com/show-forumpost/fi-16/pi-2327701/ti-387876/s--11/
After all that travelling its time to get our
heads down and get back to work.
Hope you are keeping well.
All the best,
John & Stephen
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
J-dex Magazine - Online November 2007 Edition
Welcome to the the November 2007 edition of J-dex online.
Simply click here
to be taken to J-dex online.
++++++++++++++++
For the American perspective try
Click here for Polygon
+++++++++++++++++++
How much to fit a battery??
Was in a midlands town
recently and all of the three customers I remembered to ask said that they
charged €6 for a watch battery. One other customer in another town
was also €6. If
you have any thoughts on battery prices please share them. Personally I feel that we can all
get a little more for the undoubted skill required to fit a battery. CLEAN the outside
of the watch, (to remove the “wrist cheese”)find how it opens, carefully open
it and check the old battery, fit a new one if required and check again to
ensure that it is working correctly. Say
five minutes for the average battery fitting.
And you make say €4 nett.
Batteries cost little so say your time sells for (12 x 4) €48. A doctor often
does a lot less, and often a lot less and takes 10 minutes to do so. They charge €50
for this which values their time at (50 x 6) €300 an hour. And some batteries give a lot of
trouble. Ever
despaired of getting the back off, in the almost certain knowledge that it will
be a lot harder to get it back on again! I am indebted to a customer, as
always, for a little tip to help you get those reluctant case backs on
again. If you have a tool designed for
stretching wedding rings you have a powerful tool. Use the other end of the tool, the
lower part the squashes a ring down yo size. Remove the circular part with all the
holes in it and put your usual case pressing top and bottom dies with the watch
between them and SQUEEZE. Not too hard,
it has amazing power I am told.
++++++++++++++++++
Young.
And for those of you who wonder just what sort of
pills I take to keep me relatively young I took a pic this morning when I had
nothing to do. The actual list
reads: Biotin 1000 ug, Calcium 600 mg,
Vitamin C 1 gram hard, Vitamin D 10 ug, magnesium 250 mg, Cod Liver oil, Vitamin E 200 i.u., Korean
Ginseng, Echinacea, Zinc 15 mg, Vitamin B complex, Calcium-Magnesium. Zinc, Vivioptal Active, Fish Oil concentrate, Brewers
Yeast, Chondroiten Glucosamine complex, Green Tea Extract, Garlic caps,
Selenium 200 ug, Coenzyme Q10 (mostly from Holland & Barrett on half price
sales as they occur.)
Additionally I buy from the US of A Melatonin 3 mg to
help sleep.(about five nights a week and I get from 4 to 8 hours pleasant
sleep), Complete Ginkgo Biloba (supposed to help the blood get to the parts
ordinary blood does not reach), Hoodia Gordonii (2 for breakfast and again for
lunch so that the appetite is depressed and I can do with smaller portions
without feeling hungry).
Contact the
Additionally I have started to jog a bit instead of
just the walking so that I can ski better next year. Before some of you think that I am
charging along at a high rate of knots I found that while I walked 6.6 miles in
about 1 hour 54 minutes the same route exactly jogged came in at 1 hour 47
minutes (a “speed-up” of just 7 minutes or about 6%). So the weight has come down nearly 2 stone
over 20 months and I feel great………………most of the time. If you know of a tablet that makes you feel
great ALL of the time please get in touch immediately.!! I forgot to mention that the US
people also do St John’s Wort tablets which apparently help depression (one a
day……….I do not take them yet). They are unavailable in
And a message from Findings
Ireland. We buy scrap gold,
scrap silver and scrap silver oxide watch batteries. Give us a shout and turn your scrap into cash
which could be used to fund your pension. Think about it. If Bush steps back from
E.& O. E.