Articles and News

London, UK—Executives of five leading luxury jewelry retailers—Lux, Bond & Green (image), Mayfair Rocks, Zadok, Ben Bridge, and Sid Potts—were recently interviewed by the Financial Timesfor a special report about American family-owned jewelry and watch businesses competing with larger mass-market rivals. The article also interviewed Andrew Mitchell-Namdar of Mitchells, a designer clothing and jewelry store in Connecticut.

John Green, president and CEO of 120-year-old Hartford, CT-based Lux, Bond & Green told the paper something all his luxury jeweler peers in the industry already know: it’s the personal touch and relationships with customers and the community that keeps family-owned jewelry stores in business even amidst competition from the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Signet, and more.

Lisa Bridge, the fifth-generation president of Ben Bridge Jeweler—owned by Berkshire Hathaway but still run by family—said the same thing about the importance of community involvement and quoted a favorite family/business motto: “Service is the rent we pay for the space we occupy on earth.”    

The challenges of being a successful independent jeweler were addressed by Jonathan Zadok, of Houston, TX-based Zadok Jewelers, who pointed out that independents don’t have the same economies of scale for business expenses that large merchants do, while fourth-generation jeweler Lauren Kulchinsky Levison of Mayfair Rocks in East Hampton, NY, said sometimes the challenges are even more basic than that: someone always has to mind the store. That makes family events tough to plan. 

“Weddings—I mean, we have to close,” she told FT.

Family events often mean closing the store, says Lauren Kulchinsky Levison, the bride in this photo. From left, her siblings Kristen, Ryan, and Justin on her wedding day. 

Still, all the jewelers interviewed agreed that the personal touch of an independent family jeweler is what will carry them well into the future.

Read the full article here.