Covid-19
Covid-19 brought unprecedented challenges to the UK jewellery trade, reshaping retail, supply chains, and consumer behaviour. For jewellers, manufacturers, and suppliers, understanding the pandemic’s lasting impact is essential to building resilience and adapting strategies. Jewellery Focus offers in-depth coverage of Covid-19’s effects on the industry, including market analysis, recovery efforts, e-commerce growth, and insights into how businesses are navigating a post-pandemic landscape.
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Sep- 2020 -11 SeptemberFeatures
Edge of Ember: Forging a sustainable future
As we enter the age of the unknown following the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, industries are finding themselves at a crossroads and looking for change. While consumers and creators begin to look beyond traditional norms, more and more brands have turned towards diamonds’ much younger cousin: the lab-grown variety. …
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11 SeptemberInternational
De Beers takes ‘flexible’ approach to rough diamond sales
De Beers Group today announced the value of rough diamond sales for the sixth and seventh sales cycles of 2020. The provisional sales of cycle seven totalled $320m (£249.7m), up from $287m (£224m) reported in the seventh cycle of 2019. In addition, rough diamond sales in cycle six totalled $116m…
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11 SeptemberCoronavirus
Businesses hit by local lockdowns to receive grants
Businesses in England that are required to shut due to local lockdowns will now be able to claim up to £1,500 per property every three weeks, the Government has announced. Chief secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay, announced the new funding plan yesterday (10 September) as part of ongoing efforts…
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10 SeptemberCurrent Affairs
Government launches new ‘bounce back’ plan for retailers
A new series of measures has been announced by the UK Government to support businesses in the consumer and retail industries during the Covid-19 pandemic. The plans, announced by Minister for exports Graham Stuart, will offer immediate support to businesses by ensuring specialists provide advice on online retail and international…
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8 SeptemberFeatures
Getting closer to Colombia’s emeralds
Every emerald should tell its own story, from the day the precious gemstone is mined and held to the light for the first time, to the moment the customer holds a jewel of such beauty in their hand. Colombia’s Chivor, Coscuez and Muzo mines produce the finest emeralds in the…
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3 SeptemberFeatures
Building platinum jewellery sales in a post-pandemic world
The COVID-19 crisis has profoundly affected the fine jewellery market in 2020, but recovery is already underway. While it is too soon to say when the industry will fully recover, there is no question that consumers are willing to make fine jewellery purchases post pandemic, and fine jewellery buyers tend…
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3 SeptemberAdvice
HMRC and Covid-19: One hand giveth, the other taketh away
One hand giveth HMRC was responsible for overseeing and implementing the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (“CJRS”) and other furlough schemes. Its ensuring that monies were paid under the Government’s various furlough support schemes has been impressive. Although the guidance on who was entitled to monies under the CJRS was…
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3 SeptemberRetailers
SMEs ‘plagued’ by late payments
UK freelancers and small business owners continue to be plagued by the problem of late payment, according to new research by cloud accounting software company Freeagent. Analysis of over two million invoices sent by FreeAgent customers between January 2019 and June 2020 has revealed the “startling impact” of late payment…
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Aug- 2020 -27 AugustCoronavirus
Majority of retail office workers feel unsafe returning to work after Covid-19
Only 28% of office workers in the retail, catering and leisure sector feel safe returning to work after the pandemic, despite new health and safety measures that have been put in place. This is according to new research from insurance provider Protectivity, which asked office workers around the UK how…
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26 AugustAdvice
How COVID-19 has impacted global supply chains
The impact of COVID-19 has been swift and devastating to those directly affected. Not just from a health perspective but also for businesses who had to promptly close their doors as the country went into lockdown, particularly those in hospitality and retail. And as we now slowly emerge from these…
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