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Newton’s Jewelers: “I Love This Crazy Business!” | January 22, 2014 (0 comments)
Ft. Smith, AR--When you speak with Kelly Newton of Newton's Jewelers, his love for what he does shines right on through. "I love this crazy business," says Newton. "I can't wait to get here in the morning and I'm the last to leave at night." Newton estimates he still works 65-70 hours a week in the store and the business he loves. The Centurion spoke with Newton (left) during the company's 100th year in business.
The History. Newton's Jewelers has a long history, 100 years this month, to be exact. According to Newton, everything started with his grandfather in McAlister, Oklahoma, who began his career as a watchmaker. His grandfather and grandmother had five kids and the four sons went into the business. All four eventually shipped off to North Africa during World War II and his grandfather and all the wives (of the four brothers) kept an eye on all the businesses until they returned. Through the years, Newton's grew to 16 stores.
As the brothers aged, there was no one to take over the business. One brother, Bunny Newton, is still living, in Joplin, Missouri; he is 91. Today, there are two Newton's Jewelers, one in Fort Smith and the other remaining in Joplin.
Newton's original location, above; the current Ft. Smith exterior, below.
The Recent Sales. Business at Newton's is driven by bridal sales and Rolex watch sales. Recent sales have been strong in both large diamonds and Rolex. "We sold more Rolex watches during our fourth quarter than we sold in any of the fourth quarters of the last five years." Currently, Newton's Rolex inventory takes up 28 feet of cases in and they are slated to add a Rolex Boutique in the near future.
Although the store carries plenty of Rolex, Newton admits the sales came as a shock. "We had actually decided to (and did) reduce our advertising. We wondered if the company, being this old, needed to advertise as heavily as we used to. It was a little experiment." Clearly, the company's reputation carried it through with flying colors.
It's moments like that that Newton loves. "I show up here every day and see what happens," he said.
Newton's relies on its own brand as well as its branded inventory of diamonds. "We sell Forevermark, Lazare Kaplan, and Firemark. In addition to the major brands, we sell many AGS Ideal Cut diamonds under our own Newton's Diamond brand."
The Shop, The Store and The Staff. Newton's has a large shop onsite. "We do tons of custom work," says Newton. "We use computer aided designs (CAD) and our customers love it."
Samples of Newton's custom work.
Newton's is about 7,000 square feet total, with about 5,500 square feet of selling space. The rest is devoted to the shop and offices. They employ 12 people, all longtime employees with all but two devoted to sales. But, says Newton, "everyone ends up on the showroom floor. Even the shop guys take off their bibs, put on jackets and come on the sales floor when they are needed," says Newton.
Two views of Newton's showroom:
Newton's is one of a shrinking number of jewelers today who carry a full line of giftware, complete with bridal registry. Newton's wife Marilyn and their three daughters, Lucy, Sara, and Jennifer, all work together with the gift purchases. The store carries a number of lines to stock the giftware side of the store, including Swiss Army, Beatriz Ball, Nambe, Vietri, Michael Aram, Juliska, Mariposa, Julia Knight, Annie Glass, L'Objet, Vagabond House, Mapleleaf At Home, Waterford, Wallace Silversmiths, Reed & Barton, Towle, Pickard China, and Visconti.
"We sell a ton of giftware," says Newton. "Some of those lines we cannot keep in stock. We're reordering all the time. My wife Marilyn has really excelled in this part of our business."
Along with the outstanding selection of giftware, Newton's offers custom gift-wrapping. In fact, they let the customers visit the giftwrap room to pick out their favorite wrapping paper. "When people leave here, they have something really beautiful. It's what people expect from us," says Newton. "Even if they have only spent $20, they'll get a $20 worth of gift wrapping. The women love it, but the men really enjoy it, too."
The Customers and The Outreach. Newton's continually attracts new customers. "We see lots of regional customers, they are not just locals. We sell all over this region. December sales were from Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Florida and Kansas, as well as Arkansas. We also have some Washington D.C. customers. Many times, they are people we've never seen before that find us through word of mouth from other customers."
Newton does his part to find customers by advertising on TV, radio, local magazines, and billboards. His social media presence (Facebook) and website are handled by his youngest daughter and an outside marketing company.
Two of Newton's billboards.
The Newton Difference. When asked what makes his business different, Newton says it's how he buys. "We've always imported diamonds directly," he said. "We still do that, we deal with cutters one-on-one. My grandfather started that. He went overseas every year until 9/11 put the brakes on. After that, our cutters in Belgium and Asia created coded websites for us and they opened small office in New York to service us. I buy via computer 24/7, so that keeps any holes filled in our inventory."
"Another Newton's difference is our customer service," says Newton. "That's first and foremost. We don't 'sell' anybody. We don't try to use fancy marketing; in fact, we won't carry some lines because we don't believe in their message. We want people to know the basic facts; we educate them and if they want to buy, that's their prerogative. We don't force feed anybody."
Newton believes his company's sales practice correlate to his ultra-low return rate. "We have few returns. We had one from Christmas," he said.
When asked about his favorite part of the business, Newton says, "I like all of it. It's kinda crazy. I love being here. My wife keeps telling me that we should put beds in and stay. It's fun being here with my family and my staff that's like family. It's like my home away from home."
Newton's grandchildren also consider the store to be home. "These four have grown up in our store, right under our feet. There's hardly a day when one or more of them aren't running around here for hours!"
Kelly Newton's grandchildren, here in Halloween costume. Family-friendly Newton's is happy to have them running around in the store and consider it home.