On October 31, the Golden Globe – 2009 Jewelry Show held at the Crocus City Hall, an exhibition center in Moscow, was closed. Rough&Polished probed its participants if any optimism with regard to the jewelry market crisis was justified.
Yekaterina, Sales Manager, Choron Diamond:
There are indeed fewer buyers due to the crisis. However, now the situation has significantly improved. As compared with the last spring and summer sales grew much stronger starting from September.
Victor Tulupov, CEO, Tulupov Jewelry House:
During the crisis period we went into the segment of expensive and super expensive goods and we have not the slightest regret about it and believe that everything was done right. Our major goods are jewelry suites with two- or three-carat diamonds, pricy sapphires and emeralds as well as jewelry art pieces using the same kind of gems. The super expensive segment is currently of high priority. Look, for instance, at this small ring, it costs 14 million (roubles). It attracts much attention. Two- and three-carat rings are also a hot selling stuff – we have already none, everything we brought to the show is gone. The mid-price segment has sagged, to my view, because there is no middle class in this country as such – those who deemed they were curtailed their expenses to fit a lower segment. And this is first of all affecting the jewelry and luxury markets.
Igor Korogozin, Manager, Markazit:
It seems to me that right away everything is not as good as I and many of my colleagues would like it to be. The recession in retail is just beginning judging by our clients’ response – and we are dealing with more than 200 companies across Russia. This trend has been observed during the last two months. My opinion is that the jewelry market has not yet bottomed. Everything is just starting to happen…
Roman Laukaitis, Manager, ELLE Jewellery:
Our company boosted its sales this year, so we did not feel any crisis. Maybe it was because we are dealing only with silver. It may as well be that our niche in this situation turned out to be the most profitable. As far as I know, the average jewelry sales ticket across the market has all in all went down. What’s more, we are using our own money without falling back on credits. Those who do were of course in a tight squeeze. We have also our own production facilities and collaborate with Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Turkey and Poland. The so-called crisis has affected neither our European, nor Asian partners as well. Basically, the current trend is such that the majority of people who earlier used to buy mid-priced jewelry pieces, say, made in gold and diamonds, now turned to silver. I know that many large-scale world manufactures and merchants which were engaged in gold operations are currently expanding their segment of silver jewelry.
Can it be that the crisis has had no impact on the purchasing power of your customers?
Strange as it may seem, it hasn’t. We have many clients in Russian provinces and cities where there are city-forming enterprises. No, sales have not slumped - on the contrary, in some places they only went stronger. Crisis is not a war after all. Life goes on and people continue to marry, give birth to their children, they visit each other and give gifts. And this means that the jewelry sector will always remain popular one way or another.
You have also some diamond pieces in your stock. Do they sell well?
What should I say… Of course they sell. The problem with them is that even a tiny diamond may make the price of a jewelry piece so high that it would be better then to buy it in gold. In this case the significance of metal is lost.
Maria Saprunova, Brand Manager, OPTIM Watch Factory:
Now the sales situation is much better even if we judge by the current show. People got attracted – it is evident that they are recovering their purchasing power. Particularly, they started to buy expensive watches which are more viewed upon as fashion accessories. Diamond watches are in the front line of sales. They are made on order and we have displayed here only sample pieces. These attract great interest and we started to get orders for such watches from clients.
Yelena, Manager, Brilliline:
The problem is not so much with this crisis as with the misplaced exhibition area – we are far away from the entrance and our foot traffic is low. However, generally I would say that currently we do not feel crisis effects. It’s our first year on the market and we are manufacturing and selling inexpensive diamond pieces in the mid- and low-priced segments valued from one thousand roubles and more. Our retail sales are not affected by the crisis altogether.
Anna Tishinski, Rough&Polished, Moscow
