Private equity kills the romance of our industry

The artisanal flare that characterises much of the UK jewellery industry couldn’t feel further away from the numerical mustard of the City.

A CAD design programme is about as close as the jewellery world gets to digits flashing across the stock broker’s screen. But this week brings the news that at least two stalwarts of the jewellery fraternity have been ensnared by anonymous money men.

The Dreyfuss family (owners of the eponymous Swiss watch brand) have sold their 120-year-old company to a Chinese investment firm, and pawnbrokers Albemarle & Bond has been rescued at the 11th hour by a British equivalent.

OK, so pawnbroking isn’t quite the paragon of romance that a craftsman at his bench evokes. But it is an integral part of this varied trade, not least because of the frenzied gold-buying the pawnbrokers have indulged in these past few years has played a huge part in dictating what margin a jeweller can expect from precious metal pieces.

So call me old-fashioned, but, in just the same way as a Starbucks has none of the charm of an independent coffee shop (like the sort you find more of on the continent), private equity getting its mitts on the jewellery industry removes some of its colour, too.