Business news at end of March 2004

Business news at end of March 2004.

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

Wholesaler’s reports:

Findings Ireland reports business up 8% for the month of March. Making us down ½% for the eight months ended March 2004.

Talking to a wholesaler and he said that he was down 10% for the year ended May 2003 and felt that they were going to finish down a further 10% to end of May 2004.

One wholesaler was down 2% for March. More silver sold and it is hard to get big turnover in silver compared to gold.

Retailers reports:

Dublin:

Hi Johnny

Glad to hear your skiing holiday went well.

I have been away on a short break so my Jan and Feb. report is late, however I will send it anyway.

In Dublin city centre we have found the major disruptions in the city plus the lack of the south-side Darts at weekends hampered business very badly in January. In February we made a particularly big effort for Valentine’s. We didn't advertise but ran a series of good value promotions for the period. Our Valentine’s business went very well. Tourist business very depressed. February like with like for last year, thank God.

In general we are finding that the unit sales are down and footfall in the area is down. We have countered this by cutting our purchasing savagely. Paying very good attention to stock levels and all overheads to offset a very disappointing start of the year.

Yours

Telephone report:

Retailer reports January up 10%, February up 30% and March down 20%. For March they found gifts up, jewellery down and repairs about steady.

But the March figure makes no allowance for a light-fingered employee now departed with some acrimony.

As the reporter says” You learn something every day but you never learn it all !”

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And from the West:

Probably too late now but December up 25%. January down 20%. February up 15%. Valentines day good. Year to date up 19%. Year ends March 31st so we are very happy with 2003-2004.

Regards,

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North again:

Hi Johnny,

Glad to see you are 'on the mend' - always enjoy your reports.

Re these Watch Brands, I am not 100% sure what help you are after.

Keep up the good work, I still believe we are in a great trade.
We have been busy here in this town over the last year - but we must work hard at it like everyone else.

God be with the "good ol' days" when everything sold with no hassle.

Regards,

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From the West:

Greetings from a ghost town, smokeless, tourist-less and it seems financially useless...

March 2004 is down 21% on March 2003, this is in the sales revenue as opposed to the repair revenue which is behaving consistently. Postal strike didn't help!

Of course the problem with business being quiet is that motivation is thin on the ground and you then question yourself, try re-jigging the display, colours, layout etc. if nothing else it'll keep you occupied and Joe Public will see the changes, they're getting very observant.

Anybody notice the improvements in window display across all
businesses?

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Shop for Sale in Waterford

Noreen Pender of Waterford City Jewellers is considering selling her jewellery business at 6, Arundel Square, Waterford and moving into another field.

Photos attached and details are:

21 year lease with over 20 years to run.

Asking €65,000 for the key with stock as agreed. Price includes goodwill etc. Has loyal staff who would like the business to be sold as a going concern.

They have a very good and lucrative body-piercing business also and sell a lot of “crystals” with good mark-up’s.

The shop is small, 10 feet by 10 feet, Noreen said, and it backs onto a stone wall but she made a success of it for years! Give her a call if you might be interested. Phone 051-876173

About three years ago I called there for the first time and in the course of conversation I mentioned that I use a good few tiny jam pots (to hold flux for those customers who only like to buy a little at a time). Five minutes later Brian arrived with a plastic bag (remember those?) with about 20 of the tiny jars. “With Compliments”. Three year’s supply for me. What Nice People.

I was just reading over your news letter again and I wanted to tell you where my head is at. I was thinking about this on my way to work today and thought I would put pen to paper so to speak.

With all the jewellers complaining about business being so bad, why don't they all try to find a group solution to the problem.

Maybe the prices are too high for everybody. A few years ago here in the Falls[Niagara Falls] all the hotels and motels were charging too much for their rooms. They were charging the Americans for changing their money from American dollars to Canadian dollars. The Americans knew they were getting ripped off and started to vacation elsewhere. All they wanted was to be treated fairly. They (Americans) did not want to go to the bank to change their money, they are arrogant people and think everybody should love them. [Tell it like it is Bill!] They want people to fall at their feet and are prepared to pay for it, but at the same time don't want to get ripped off.

The group of hotel, motel people got together and put a plan in place to treat their visitors fairly. No, they are not a bank. Yes, they can charge a small fee to change the money. At this time the exchange rate was about 30% meaning the American dollar was worth 30% more and the Canadians were giving then a straight change. Now they don't do that. This has slowly, through a lot of advertising, brought the Americans back. The prices are a lot better than they were for hotel rooms, they are not trying to get a million dollars in two summer months anymore. We don't hear so much complaining now from either side.

My suggestion to you would be to somehow get the Jewellery Assoc. [I guess he means The Jewellery Trade]to come together and work out some form of strategy be it a buying group or whatever to get your prices down. In my opinion you want the visitors coming in to the shops to buy something not to kick tires. Who gives a shit if your neighbour sells a million dollars worth of shoes, you want a customer buying a million dollars worth of jewellery. Maybe the guy that knows the shoe dealer thinks he is busy selling loads of shoes, maybe it is all talk and he has a lot of people looking but not buying. Everybody likes to make themselves look better than they really are. Who wants to say I am starving to death. Nobody. People want to feel they are getting value for their money.

We have good friends who arrived in Ireland today and it will be interesting to see how they find things. In my travels over there I find everything twice what it is here, that is no exaggeration. Twice the price, so I look carefully before I make a purchase. If people in Ireland will spend 15,000.00 Euros on a hot tub, why will they not buy the jewellery, something does not sound right.

I should mention that Bill (picture adjacent) makes the siding or panels to decorate “Hot Tubs”. I thanked him for his contribution and he came back with………………….

If the jewellers don't do something to get the customers back in to their stores they will find that their customers will be buying at the Wal-Mart's of Ireland. I am not really a price conscious shopper myself, but there is a huge number of people out there that are. If your customers don't sell regular batteries why don't they, if they can sell watch batteries why can’t they sell regular batteries.

When I was in the lumber business, as in working in the stores, there was one store that decided to put in chocolate bars. Well the rest of us went nuts, what the hell is a candy bar doing in a lumber store. We all had a good laugh about that, until I was at a meeting and the big boss told this manager to get the candy bars out of his store. This manager went wild as he was making forty thousand dollars profit from these front end candy bars ($40.000.00) there was not too many laughs from that day on. He was pissed as his bonus was lost.

If you could convince some of your dealers to put pick up items by the cash, this may give them extra sales.

We all know how hard it is to get a customer in to your store, he does not go there to buy milk, but it does not mean he won’t buy it when he sees it there if he needs it anyway.

[Strangely enough our correspondent below also wonders about changing their business to something else. It has been said that it is not those who inflict the most who will survive but those who endure the most. Well………..maybe.]

That is an inflated figure thanks to a company buying a few watches for the workers.

Basically since Valentine’s it has being shocking, one bad week after another.

Never can understand how postage box size jewellers on the coasts of Ireland can change their Mercs every year!!

Mean while Anne Summers has a turnover of €1.9 million last year in Dublin!!!!!

Ps please ONLY send this to regular REPORTERS OK, and not to the other 57 who don’t make an effort.

[Actually the mailing list is over 200…………….how many actually read it we do not know]

Dear Johnny
We are about to "modularize" the company and segment our sales operation
by brand. As a result we have some sales positions available.
Perhaps some of your readers would be interested?

[Noel Wall]
Timemark Ltd.,
A6 Calmount Park,
Calmount Road,
Ballymount,
Dublin 12,
Ireland.
Tel: 01 4092540
Sales Fax: + 353 1 4092930
Service Fax: + 353 1 4092920
Email: sales@seiko.ie
Web: www.seiko.ie
Email: service@seiko.ie

Hi Johnny,

Hope you are keeping well. Tommy asked me to contact you regarding
Insurance, he was wondering if you had a number for T. H. March or is there some one else quoting at a reasonable cost in the jewellery trade, as ourrenewal has gone through the roof.

Thanking you in anticipation,

Regards,

Many of you will have heard of the simple test to check that your microwave oven is not emitting excessive microwave radiation. Just put your mobile into the microwave, close the door firmly and call the mobile from the landline. If all is OK then you will get a message “out of coverage” or the like.

Well, a friend of mine thought that this was a brilliant idea and put the mobile in the microwave and then over to the sideboard to pick up the landline phone to call the mobile. Suddenly his wife noticed that the microwave was running. Within 10 seconds my friend was back at the microwave but to make a long story short the main board in the mobile had been fried. Nice one!

We have 2,000 paper bags, brown about 6 x 5 and also bracelet pads and earring pads as per attached fotos. These pads are standard size bracelet and earring pads printed as you see 9ct Gold and Sterling silver. Several hundred of each available Free!! And 2,000 bags brown paper 230 mm x 180 mm. Also free.

And now some good news And a little bad news. Alan Dowling, of P J Dowling has recently been operated on for major surgery. The good news is that he is out now and doing well. Keep Smiling Alan from everyone.

Have a customer who recently took delivery of a PDA (personal digital assistant) by HP called a Jornado 928.

I have a similar one, picture above, and mine cost about €540. This newer one has a phone as well, to go with the perpetual calendar which will note recurring appointments far into the future (like your mother-in-law’s birthday etc.) Has a little built in voice recorder for note taking while driving used by pressing just one easy to hit button on the side. And pocket versions of both Word and Excel so you can keep a copy of important items with you for perusal or corrections. Interfaces with your desktop also so that even the total loss of the machine still leaves the data all OK at home. And no retyping needed………..let the computer do the heavy lifting). Stores fotos too, quite large ones. I find mine very useful.

After a little while this customer, a man of course and gadget minded like me, decided that this machine was not for him. In any event he now wishes to sell it off cheap. €300 is the price. It is half the size of a paperback book and also only half as thick. Fits in the inside jacket pocket. Please let me know if you are interested.

I am looking for a white gold neck chain to match the bracelet in the attached photo. If you have such a chain in stock or know where I can get one, I'd be very grateful.