New jewellery fair garners buying group support for New Year ‘kick-off’

Jorge Joaquim, chief financial officer Showcase Jewellers pointed to the need for the jewellery industry to regroup.

“We will support the fair, as we do for all industry events. Given the number of missed opportunities for members and the industry over the last two years, we encourage member attendance and look forward to seeing members and suppliers face to face,” Joaquim said.

He added that over the coming months, Showcase staff would discuss activities and training opportunities to be conducted during the Australian Jewellery Fair 2022 “to ensure we offer essential and relevant content based on demand from our members”.

“With the post lockdown sales surge expected to continue well into 2022, the Australian Jewellery Fair will be an essential event for retailers,” Colin Pocklington, managing director Nationwide Jewellers said.

“Whilst last year’s Trade Days in each capital city were very successful, now that we can have greater confidence in state borders remaining open, having the one trade event in Sydney is the right move for the industry. Retailers will have access to a much larger number of suppliers in one place – something that has not been possible for nearly two and a half years,” he added.

Nationwide will coordinate a range of activities to help ‘kick-off’ the New Year for its members at the March event with:

• A new half-day Retail Jewellery Business Management Course
• Availability of our six month finance ‘fair dollars’ for all members
• Training sessions on diamonds, digital marketing, and Global Diamond Vault
• One-on-one members business consultations

Pocklington hopes that New Zealand-based members will take the opportunity to travel early next year, as travel restrictions should be less stringent by March.

Josh Zarb CEO Independent Jewellers Collective (IJC) will also take the opportunity for his group to gather at the fair which will be located at the International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour, 11 to 12 march.

“We are still in the process of finalising our plans for early 2022 as we are excited to host a conference for IJC partners. IJC would support the Australian Jewellery Fair because all fairs to date have been a great opportunity to engage and network with both retailers and suppliers in our trade,” Zarb said.

“Claire Packett, head of category at Leading Edge Group Jewellers said that jewellery fairs are an integral part of bringing the industry together.

“We look forward to being a part of the Australian Jewellery Fair in March 2022, reconnecting and supporting our members, suppliers and friends across the industry.

“And as part of Australia’s largest buying group, Leading Edge Jewellers couldn’t be more aligned with the desire to see jewellers across the country grow and thrive as they come out of a very tough couple of years,” Packett said.

Gary Fitz-Roy, managing director Expertise Events told Jeweller last week: “There is no doubt that while the jewellery industry has survived the past two years relatively intact, the vision for how it maintains and fully recovers post-COVID needs to be at the centre of everything we do as an industry”.

He said the dates were carefully selected to “unite the entire industry”.

An earlier date than March would not allow retailers enough time to properly assess Christmas/New Year trading results for re-stocking purposes and it falls after the Valentine’s Day sales further allowing retailers to assess product levels.

More importantly, Fitz-Roy said, “therefore we deliberately avoided the month of February so that we have the chance to attract a national audience because, as you know, the WA border will most likely remain closed until sometime mid-late February.”

He also believes that consumer confidence will be much stronger by March, following the seasonal highs of both the New Year’s holidays, and Valentine’s Day.

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New jewellery trade fair announced; March 2022