Editor’s Blog

It’s only fair that card fees are knocked on the head

The news that we’re using less physical cash in the UK than at any other time in history means there has been a consumer behaviour revolution. The public has, on a wholesale basis, abandoned of cash in favour of the trusty chip ‘n’ pin. But somehow, the flexibility doesn’t seem…

Read More »

Can you smell a retail boom?

I love to be the bearer of good news. The UK just had the biggest year-on-year rise in the quantity of goods bought in the retail sector since 2004. Yes, you heard right. OK, so a lot of the 6.9 per cent  fillip has been precipitated by food sales (thanks, Tesco,…

Read More »

That dodgy jeweller’s hallmarking comeuppance sends a useful message

The news that a Birmingham jeweller who flouted hallmarking rules and has been fined £25,000 as a result, is a useful bit of promotion for the scrupulous majority in the industry. Amjad Mahmood Yousif, trading as Crown Jewellers at 39 Formans Road, Sparkhill, was ordered to pay £11,281 in costs,…

Read More »

Need to escape an awful date? There’s a pendant for that.

The Daily Mail reported last week that a company is now producing a necklace/bracelet that links to your phone via Bluetooth and when pressed, can give you a ‘fake’ call to get you out of a sticky spot such as a bad date or a boring lunch. Imagine the conversation…

Read More »

Another trade show on the continent? Sounds good to me…

There’s no arguing with the notion that a busy trade show means its appertaining sector is buoyant. That’s why the inaugural Jewellery & Gem Fair Europe, organised by UBM Asia, spells good news for the industry as a whole. After the show closed, the organisers excitedly trotted out a press release…

Read More »

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…

Read More »

The firm that can thrive on a 25% markup

I first met Rob Passmore, founder and MD of e-commerce startup Jewel Street, at Spring Fair back in February. To be honest, I was sceptical about his chances of success. After all it is not as though no-one has been trying to sell jewellery online for the last 10 years,…

Read More »

The buying begins

It now seems that the upward trend for hallmarking figures is gaining strength. Across the four major assay offices in the UK, the total number of items hallmarked in the first quarter of this year was up by 23 per cent, compared with the same period the previous year. The…

Read More »

Welcome to the new Jewellery Focus Weekly Bulletin

Here at Jewellery Focus we have been working hard over the last six months to modernise every aspect of the magazine. This, our Weekly Bulletin, is the icing on the cake. We don’t want to bombard you with daily newsletters, or scrape around looking for something to fill the space…

Read More »