Business news at end of February 2004.

 

Findings
Ireland Ltd.  
Home Page if this is the only page you can see. 

 

 

 

Wholesaler’s reports:

Findings Ireland reports business down 31% for the month of February.   Making us down 1% for the seven months ended February.

 

Two wholesalers canvassed said that they were down about 5% for the first two months of 2004.   Both 5% down.

 

One wholesaler reported that while silver goods and diamond goods were holding up, yellow gold was where the drop had occurred.

 

[Other wholesaler’s reports particularly welcome.] 

 

 

Retailers reports:

Dublin:

One retailer reports business up 15% for Christmas 2003 over 2002.  Nice one!

 

 

From the Midlands:

 

Johnny,

I had a ridiculously successful Valentine's Day. I don't know why. Usually I
sell about three items. This time the shop was very busy. The only two
differences I can think of between this year and other years are

1. I wasn't actually there, I was in America
2. I did no advertising. Usually I would take out a few column inches.

Other than that it is quiet, but no more so than I would expect for this
time of year.

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Midlands again:

Hello Johnny,

Hope you are continuing to make great progress, and that the holiday has done a great deal of good.

We were only discussing having a Sale the other day, and came to the same conclusion, particularly in a place as small as our town, where we know a very large percentage of our customers.

We are thinking though of putting just one piece in the centre of the window as

a special offer, again, not advertising it.

Why is it that the rag trade gets away with it, and indeed the shoe business all the time, but perhaps we are just assuming that customers would kick up, I do think if I had a business in a city I would have A BIG SALE - of course the multiples always do, I think.

Did I send you a report, I really will try and contribute as I find them interesting and very often consoling??

My story is identical - more expensive items sold, but the reports really do kick me into touch, as you know I never started out as a retailer and I am particularly bad on stock control, I am very much like a child in a candy store, but I hope I am getting a bit better.

 

Very happy New Year to all of you, I may have wished you this before but a second time will not do any harm.

 

Regards,

Xxxxxx xxxxxxx

P S

No doubt you have had many offers on the scanner, Mary had to get a lap top as she is doing her finals, she got one in Dublin for 500 euro- is really pleased with it, some industrial estate in Drumcondra. [No. Only one request for the scanner and it has been delivered.]

 

 

Midlands again:

Johnny

 

February has been a quiet month, but it always is. Just as well January was good.

 

 

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 And from the North:

Well!
Its been a roller coaster of a month, starts off slow, picks up for
Valentines and then falls off the face of the planet, it seems that trends
have gone back quite a few years. Take a look at fashion forecasts for this
year and remember what was selling last time hot pants were in fashion -
ring any bells? What do you think?  [I cannot think of what I was selling but I think I remember the hot pants fairly clearly………what little of them that there was to remember!]
All in all at the end of the month we were 14% down as compared to Feb. 03
and 1.5% down on YTD, tenth period. BUT due to canny purchasing are more
liquid...
Busiest time: 5-6pm.
Rings, pendant, chain and watches were the top four sellers - listed in
order from top down

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North again:

Dear Johnny

How did the skiing go?  I believe that there is lots of snow on the
slopes this year.

February was only OK.  The street I'm on is being dug up and this did not help.  Road works are to go on until for a good while yet.

That's it for this month.  Hopefully I'll have more to report about at end of March.

Best regards

 

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Also from the South:

Hi Johnny,

 

Hope you are well.

February up 17%

Which sounds great but last Feb. was not up to much at all.

There was some shocking quiet days really bad in the month!!!!!!!!

A diamond ring sale also helped the figures.

 

Valentines was on par with last year; cash was down but credit cards were up.

It was going great up to 11.30 am Saturday when suddenly it just collapsed.

The fact that the scum were playing on the box and the rugger was on didn't help one bit,

Valentines Saturday afternoon was most depressing!!!!!!!

In fact Saturdays have really gone to the dogs in the last few years, it has becoming just an average day.  The shoe and rag trade get all the business while the punters pass merrily by the jewellers.

 

My shoe shop friend told me they order in just as much stock for end of January as they would have in before the Xmas rush, enough said.

They also did the monthly February figures with a full two weeks to spare and that wouldn’t be the pathetic jewellers February figures that we would be talking about!!

My Menswear friend scraped the monthly figures, bit of a struggle for him.

 

My end of year stock, Jan 2003-December 2003 was down 4%.

Since I had a good Xmas with my stock down as well it was a mighty effort to achieve both those targets.

I will be trying to get my stock down even further, with everybody getting into selling silver its a case of too many deckchairs on the titanic.

The grumpy - pushy wholesalers will lose out.

So watch out everybody.

 

The local big department store is starting to open Sundays which is a rather worrying and pathetic development.

They also have these special half price days as well.

Its getting rougher and rougher in the Retail trade with only the consumer winning in the end!!

 

On final note I heard of one retailer telling a wholesaler not to write down an order for over 4000 euro ,when the order came in it was closer to 5000 euro.

Needless to say that wholesaler doesn’t call there any more!!!!

 

Best wishes

 

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South again:

Excellent idea, a little reminder at the right moment, just what was needed to jog the memory. Actually it is all your fault promoting walking to improve health, yes we responded to that, leaves little time to write reports for your monthly review. Yesterday we got lost somewhere  and we walked a lot further than intended. Eventually we found someone in this rural part of the countryside who explained the way back and thought we were very brave to have undertaken such a long distance. Next time we won’t forget the map! However it was a lovely day out, a good frost underfoot, ice on the lakes, and not a cloud in the sky.

On to more exciting things! Thankfully some small sign of an upturn in business. Dare I hold my breath. January was up 11% on 2003. and Feb was up 23% on 2003. Very hard to know exactly what has caused the above but we won’t complain if this trend continues. Maybe people are becoming more adjusted to the Euro in our style of business (the occasional spend) as opposed to the weekly shop. However it is still very hard to secure the bigger sale. Silver and mid - price gold - good. The usual run of baby gifts, selling OK. A pity to see Irish crystal, china and bronze moving very slowly. As for the watch market we feel we are being very much effected by door to door salesmen with cheap fakes. Difficult to get our message through to the public, could sound like sour grapes, I think only time and bitter experience will bring some of them back to us again. 

 

Best regards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ran out of jewellery pics so here is the view from our balcony at 08:06 a.m. in Val Thorens, France after a heavy fall of snow.    Extra good skiing that day!

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Comment:

Hi Johnny,

 

Thanks for business Report.

Well put together

At least a few made the effort this time.

Regarding given money back on 800 euro watch, I would have taken the shouting match against a dead battery!!!!!!!

The punters will only too gladly take you for a ride at any given opportunity.

Have heard that "ruined my Christmas etc" bullshit from many of them!!!!!!!!!!.

I wish some of those wholesalers would make more of an effort to tell us how things are rather than, get a plug in for their company!!!!!!!!!

Best wishes

 

And now a short CV from a chap looking for work:

 

 

Hi Johnny

Stephen Sherry                         mob. no 086-0867491
7 St Aubyns court                       home no 01-2826259
Shanganagh Rd
Killiney
Co Dublin

Started Basic Jewellery course on January 6th 2003 in Baldoyle.
This covered most aspects of working with jewellery.
Sawing, piercing, soldering, polishing.

We also got sent on placements to proper jewellers.
my placement was.

Crock Of Gold Studio
Arklow

Duil A'Ri Studio
132 Wicklow Town

My course finished in November and since then I have being working here and there.    I was also working with Clarisse Weisser. She has her own studio in Fairview.  I worked with Clarisse helping her get her stock ready for the CRAFT SHOW in the R.D.S.

I like working with my hands and also like a challenge.
I am also a quick learner and get very enthusiastic if I like what I am
doing.
I also like working with precious materials because each piece is different
and that’s where the challenge is.

If you need any more information please let me know

Sincerely

Stephen Sherry

 

Chap looking for secondhand items:

Ring stretcher.

Microweld

Ultrasonic

1 counter display size in feet 3 high, 2 wide and 6 long

1 counter display size in feet 3 high, 2 wide and 9 long

 

If you let me know I will pass on the data to him.

 

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[I repeat the request below to see whether anybody knows who supplies the following stolen watches.      He has contacted me twice already and I feel a bit useless telling him that there is not a person in the country who can identify even one of the watches.    Thanks in advance.]

 

And now a request from the cops to see whether anybody can give a hint as to the people who wholesale any of the following watches recovered in some raid or the like.  If you tell me I will tell them.

The following is a list of the brand names on the stolen watches:-

 

Piere

Bolnain

Gucci (2)

7700M

7100M

Limit

Fendi

Marco Valentino

Emporio Armani

Krugbaunen

Baune Mercier

Claude Valentini

Cartier

 

Workshop tip from the Midlands:

Hi Johnny

Here’s a trick I picked up about five years ago.

Instead of dipping matt or brushed silver when it tarnishes,  rub the item

And the health.    Skiing was great, really great.   But of course the company made all the difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic of myself a bit bombed after a hectic day on the slopes.