Melbourne Jewellery Fair surprises many

20.4 k views | Posted March 05, 2012 | By Aaron Weinman

The Melbourne Jewellery Fair closed yesterday with many exhibitors achieving higher-than-expected success.

Kicking off the Australian jewellery fair season, Melbourne surprised many in just its second year, as exhibitors showcased their 2012 ranges at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton.

Expertise Events director Gary Fitz-Roy said exact visitor numbers were currently being tallied at time of publication, but he suspects numbers are up compared to last year and will confirm later this week.

Fitz-Roy said the attitude across the fair was generally positive, suggesting many exhibitors had adopted a positive mindset backed up by strong retail support.

“By the time we opened on Sunday morning there was a general swing and people were saying ‘lets make this a really good start to the year,’” Fitz-Roy said. “Putting it in context, last year there was a feeling whether it was going to be a one-off event in Melbourne even though we said we were going to come back for three years.”

Lisa Anthony, business development manager for Austrian brand Crystalp Jewellery, said the level of visitors was “at least triple to last year.” She said this year’s visitors were a lot more interested in the intricacies of fashion jewellery, closely inspecting Crystalp’s quality and creativity in its pieces.

“There was a distinct difference in that we got a lot of jewellers closely inspecting our jewellery as opposed to the cursory glance from people that traditionally have no interest in fashion jewellery,” Anthony said.

Anthony believes the jewellery industry is changing and said retailers are forced to pay more attention to fashion jewellery brands because the changing price in precious metals has led many to seek more price-friendly options.

Retailers who inspect the quality of our product tell me that they are thinking more seriously about it and the opportunities it presents in selling,” Anthony said. “The industry is evolving and precious metals are expensive so naturally many retailers are looking elsewhere as they cannot afford it.”

Lisa-Shae Butler, PR and advertising manager for Thomas Sabo’s Australian distributor, Duraflex Group, said the reception of its new Glam and Soul ranges were positive after an exciting launch party last Saturday and “back-to-back appointments” at the fair.

“Due to the popularity of Thomas Sabo’s new Sterling Silver Glam and Soul collection, featuring the special addition line, we have experienced back to back appointments,” Butler said.

Jewellery display packaging wholesaler Graham Cohen, of Graham Cohen Marketing, was full of praise for this year’s Melbourne Jewellery Fair. He said this year met with more traffic compared to the inaugural Melbourne event last year enabling him to network with many more retailers and manufacturing jewellers.

“We waved the flag a lot more this year and met a lot of people I had never done business with in the past,” Cohen said. “There was more traffic and I got a lot more inquiries for products so I hope this third fair is persevered with in future.”

Personalised Event
Joanne Omer and Margarita Aljabary, directors of silver jewellery specialists, Blingissimo Italy, agreed this year’s Melbourne fair was a big improvement on last year and both believe the small and personal style of Melbourne was effective for the business’ networking.

“Last year was really good for us, but this year more customers have come back and helped us grow the business by recommending us to many other retailers who have also come and visited this year,” Omer said. “It’s exciting when customers come back and they tell others to come see our stand and enhance our brand.”

Not only did the personal nature of Melbourne’s boutique-like atmosphere allow suppliers to network with stockists, conversely retailers were able to improve relationships with suppliers.

David Szigeti, owner of Melbourne-based retailer Uccello Jewellery, said although the fair was a lot smaller with less traffic, the atmosphere was perfect for building relationships with his suppliers, fellow retailers and for meeting new people in the industry.

“It seems to be set up like a boutique styled event and even though I expected more exhibitors with more variety, the boutique styled event is a great option,” Szigeti said. “This is our first fair in Australia and we weren’t planning on going to the other fairs so having something local is a great opportunity.”

Networking drinks
Sunday evening saw Expertise put on a happy hour where drinks and canapés were distributed across the fair halls.

Fitz-Roy said the exhibitors and retailers were highly appreciative of the opportunity Melbourne gives them to network with each other.

“Our networking drinks hour was really appreciated on the Sunday night,” Fitz-Roy added. “We didn’t have to do that, but we are a family business doing it just as tough as everyone else and this was something the exhibitors really did appreciate.”

New Brands hit Australia
Swedish supplier, Nordic Designs, will distribute a new watch brand from Denmark, Nexo Watches. Nordic director, Cecilia Holden, said it was unfortunate she couldn’t get any stock to supply her retailers at the fair but the response over the weekend was positive about another popular Danish product in the Australian market.

“The fair has been so much busier than expected and many people have been inquiring about stocking our new Nexo Watches,” Holden said. “It’s a clean and contemporary design without the high price tag.”

Nordic Designs is the latest company to introduce another Scandanavian brand into the Australian market and Holden is enthusiastic about the brand’s potential.

“The actual watch brand has been on sale in Denmark for about two years and has met with great success,” Holden added. “We’re the first distributor in Australia and New Zealand so it’s a very exciting time for us and the Melbourne fair couldn’t have been a bigger help for exposure.”

Not all exhibitors with new brands met with Holden’s success however. Unique Accessories, wholesaler of imported Brazilian jewellery, launched its product in Australia approximately six months ago and exhibited for the first time in Melbourne.

“The fair has been a lot quieter than what we expected and we didn’t pick up as much business as we would’ve liked,” Unique sales executive, Ariana Mendes said. “This isn’t as big as what we expected it to be, but we’re looking at exhibiting at the bigger fair in September this year.”

Mendes told Jeweller the Australian market hasn’t adjusted to the colourful designs and quirky shapes of Unique’s ranges but she remains confident that with time the product will have an impact on the retail market.

“It’s always expected to be tough in the early stages and it’s only been six months,” Mendes said. “The product has been sold in Brazil for 35 years and we only just started importing them to Australia so we’re being patient for the time being.”

Overall Melbourne served as an early indicator for a potentially positive 2012 as suppliers and retailers alike hope to buck the negative trends of retail over the last two years.

“The industry is looking forward and looking at what they can achieve,” Fitz-Roy said. “For that reason they [retailers and suppliers] should be looking to get behind Brisbane because the fairs are for the industry to come together and showcase costs effectively.”

The Brisbane Jewellery Fair takes place from March 25-26 at the Exhibition and Convention Centre, Southbank.

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