IN THIS EDITION: pg1: pg2: Jewellers of Excellence · organisers of the 60th anniversary of IJL....

First of all, many congratulations to the organisers of the 60th anniversary of IJL. This year was a resounding success and it gets bigger and better each year. IJL was an excellent opportunity for Houlden to introduce our new collections, Imagine Bridal and The Colours, to our members before showcasing the collections at our February meeting. Some members were so excited at the prospect of these new collections that they had to place orders at the show!

For Houlden, the stand was busier than ever before with many of our members stopping by to get a taster of what new projects we have in store for them. It was a chance to catch up on the latest Houlden news and review the new Jewellers of Excellence program in the run up to the busy Christmas season. On hand also was our new marketing assistant Nicola Gaffney who met many members and suppliers.

Many Houlden suppliers launched their new products during the fair which gave members a chance to visit their stand and view their full collection. IJL Diamond Club extended the benefits of their membership to all members at the show where many a glass of wine or cup of coffee was enjoyed by all and of course free

hotel accommodation! It has proven to be a very hospitable breakaway spot for all visitors to the show.

Lastly, I would like to add that Identity Events did a magnificent job of designing and building our stand for IJL. It portrayed both the Houlden and Jewellers of Excellence brand to the trade meaningfully, adding to the ambience we wanted to create for the future.

Autumn 2015IN THIS EDITION: pg1: Words from Stuart Laing pg2: Jewellers of Excellence

pg4: IJL 2015 pg7: Members Corner pg8: Dates for the Diary

ISSUE 18

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Houlden are delighted to announce the creation of a group insurance policy available to all members. After their presentation at ESN they have the number of members joining that make this a viable proposition. Affinity Brokers Ltd is

an independent commercial insurance broker operating in the UK. They provide all customers with a first class service and listen to your stores needs for your company insurance so that you have the best cover available.

The group policy is in effect from the 7th September 2015 and any Houlden member can join the policy. Affinity already has 23 members committed to the policy and are looking for more to join.

If you are interested in joining and learning the benefits then please contact Yvonne McKnight or Scott Meechan direct at Affinity Brokers on 0141 221 9344 or alternatively email them on:

[email protected]@affinitybrokers.co.uk

Affinity Brokers – Group Insurance Policy Announced

“It just gets better...”Stuart’s words on success at IJL

The moment you have all been waiting for, the big reveal of the two mysterious collections.

The big reveal...Seepage 3

[email protected] 0141 248 4882


In the last edition of the LINK, Houlden revealed the striking new logo and a sneak peak of the advertising campaign for Jewellers of Excellence. We are pleased to announce the launch of the brand new, elegant, consumer focused Jewellers of Excellence website. For those of you who attended IJL this year, you would have seen

a snippet of the website template and given us some informative feedback to help us to develop the finished article. The website will be a platform for the consumer to find their nearest Jeweller of Excellence – this will be Houlden members that adhere to the strict selection criterion and only those members that meet all aspects of the criterion can be

included. We must have the best of the best to give the name Jewellers of Excellence value and set you apart from the rest to allow the consumer to see your store as part of an elite group. The launch date for the Jewellers of Excellence website will be the end of October.

Jewellers of Excellence – Customer focused

In order to encourage customers to use www.JewellersofExcellence.com as a platform to find their nearest store, Houlden is supporting the initiative by liaising with media planning agency, Media Shop, to target the best market through print and online advertising. We will be using the advert proposed in Conde Nast Traveller and the Irish publication, Image, two of the most prestigious publishing titles in the UK and Ireland and we can in turn inform customers of this through our social media paths. We will also need the help of the members to push this marketing tool to the public.

Houlden would like to encourage those members that are part of Jewellers of Excellence to use the logo throughout their website and their company stationary to promote the initiative to their customers.

Jewellers of Excellence form a network of luxury independent jewellers, offering an internationally renowned collection of

quality watches and the finest selection of jewellery and diamonds. Jewellers of Excellence is the hallmark of trust within the industry.

Jewellers of Excellence are all family owned and managed, many have been for generations. Trust, loyalty and prominence are the values that these establishments have earned over their

distinguished trading history. Jewellers of Excellence carry a badge of integrity to symbolise the respected values of quality, knowledge,

responsibility and, above all, trust.

Jewellers of Excellence Positioning Statement

All members have already been issued with the Jewellers of Excellence logo plus guidelines on how the branding has to be used. If you would like it resent please contact Nicola Gaffney at the Houlden office.

For those who have already embraced this, please send examples of how you have done so, again to [email protected]

IN THIS EDITION: pg1: Words from Stuart Laing pg2: Jewellers of Excellence



The Collections – Introducing The Colours and Imagine Bridal

theCollections

Exclusive Gold

The Colours

Imagine BridalThe moment you have all been waiting for, the big

reveal of the two mysterious collections. Houlden are

proud to showcase, along with Exclusive Gold and

Nightfall collections, The Colours and Imagine Bridal,

two beautiful collections that will help you stand above

the competition.

Sourced from the Luxury show in Las Vegas, elegant ‘The Colours’

collection comprises of deep sapphires and bright emeralds plus

many more exciting gemstones to offer your customers. The

collection has many designs, complimented with diamonds, giving

customers options of gold - white gold, yellow gold and rose gold,

meaning the choices are endless. With very competitive prices,

elegant styles, and the finest quality, this collection will dazzle you.

Imagine Bridal is one of the leading bridal suppliers in the USA. The

collection opens up fantastic opportunities for your customer with

options of stone carat weights, band designs and selected styles

being available in platinum, white, yellow and rose gold. Each piece

can be sold through a love story using Imagine Bridal’s beautiful

lifestyle advertising campaigns. Houlden can provide several

different designs of support material using these themes, with the

option to add retailer logos to promote the brand.

This collection is the ultimate in luxurious bridal collections.

Any member that did not get the opportunity to view these

collections at IJL, please contact Denise at the Houlden office for

images of the collection.

To help you sell through these collections, Enroute provide a fabulous

brochure and other marketing materials that can be personalised

with your branding and the products offered to your customers. To

access these please follow the marketing login tab on the Houlden

website and insert your login details. This One Click Marketing

System is an innovative package that gives you access to everything

needed to assist in the selling of your Houlden collections in store.

With Christmas fast approaching, this would be the ideal time to

display your exquisite new collection to your customers.

The Colours

With the finest quality of workmanship each piece is a creation of unsurpassed beauty.

IJL 2015


Another year at IJL is over and we are reflecting on a busy but fabulous show. As you can see our stand was filled with members, suppliers and press alike. This was the show where we launched two new exclusive Houlden collections – The Colours and Imagine Bridal – plus we introduced our consumer faced website for our new Jewellers of Excellence initiative. Here are some images of highlights from the show.

‘IJL is always a strong exhibition for the teams and this year was no exception with a good level of orders taken, combined with strong interest from the bespoke side of our business.Returning to Olympia this year had a great feel with an excellent positive atmosphere and a professionally organised show.’– Andrew Morton, Domino Jewellery



I thoroughly enjoyed IJL this year, it’s a great opportunity to meet both fellow retailers and trade suppliers. The new venue at Olympia continues to be a success, and is a good environment to browse the stands looking for something new.What’s more it’s always a great place to catch up with other Houlden members at the Houlden stand. We were particularly impressed by the new salesperson, Stuart, on the Houlden stand who came across as very passionate about jewellery and I am sure he will do well in the trade. – Rodney Banks Lyon, Banks Lyon Jewellers


International Jewellery London is the most anticipated event on the jewellery industries calendar. This year was even more special than the rest due to its milestone 60th anniversary of the show. It first began in 1955 as the International Watch and Jewellery Fair and had only 130 exhibitors. IJL in 2015 welcomed over 550 exhibitors with around 10,000 trade visitors and is now the leading upscale jewellery show in the UK. To celebrate this special achievement, the exhibitors were invited to join the IJL team for an evening of champagne, live music and awards. Houlden were proud to announce that two of their very own suppliers were presented with the Editors Choice award trophies, Sarah Ho and Andrew Geoghegan - well done from Houlden.

Happy 60th Birthday IJL - here is to the next 60 years!

“I thought the show was interesting for us. We found two new suppliers, which offered great prices. I thought The Colours Collection on the Houlden stand was very well priced, and I look forward to seeing the whole collection. Over all I like the venue, and it covers both shops as there is a lot of silver jewellery. I will be back next year.– Trevor Salt, Thurlow Champness

Happy 60th Birthday IJL!

I attended this year to have a look to see if there was anything new and exciting. Some interesting things to work on but for me the New Houlden Collections are an obvious choice. The coloured stone jewellery that Stuart has sourced was the star of the show. The quality of goods offered for the price is excellent and I look forward to getting a run at the full range in due course!Also the new Halo mounts offered by Houlden are a bit different from what we can get in Ireland & the UK at present and also represent good value for money.– Neville McDowell , Weir and Sons

Now in its sixth year, the Professional Jeweller Hot 100 is the event the industry is talking about. At IJL 2015 the Hot 100 list was revealed at the Freemason’s Hall in Covent Garden to in excess of 750 prestigious guests.Including our own Stuart Laing, many Houlden members and suppliers were recognised achievers in the Hot 100 list and we would like to congratulate them all. Here they are below!

For the Retail Stars we would like to congratulate the directors of Hugh Rice Jewellers, RL Austen’s Mandy Sargeant and the chairman of Laing Edinburgh, Michael Laing.

Huge congratulations to our very own Stuart Laing on being selected in the category of Business Big Shots, chairman and chief executive officer of Houlden Group and chairman of Laings of Glasgow.Plus well done to Naomi Newton Sherlock, director at Weston Beamor & creative director of Domino Jewellery, Scot Thompson from Carat, Stella Layton of the Assay Office Birmingham and Michael Hakimian of Yoko London.

Within Brand Champions, we congratulate Oliver Crouch the sales manager for Continental on snapping up a spot in the Hot 100, Sonia Menezes from Clogau, Gareth Thomas and John Reid from Brown & Newirth and Claire Miller from Weston Beamor.In the Special Honour category, congratulations go to Gary Wroe from Hockley Mint.Finally, one of Houlden Group suppliers Sarah Ho, CEO of Sarah Ho London was placed as a Trendsetter for 2015. In addition the following also received a place in this category Shona Marsh from Stubbs & Co, Fei Liu from Fei Liu and Marisa Hordern from Missoma.Houlden would like to express congratulations to our members and suppliers that made it into this prestigious category.If you are one of the few selected in this prestigious category then share your story within social media to engage your customers and tell them about the great achievements made in the business.Not only will you get recognition among industry experts, but it could gain the business local publicity among customers and journalists alike.

Share your story now to take advantage of your thrilling achievements.


Professional Jeweller announce the Hot 100

Houlden would like to announce the appointment of Nicola Gaffney as Marketing Assistant for the Houlden Group. Due to the importance of the Jewellers of Excellence promotion, we have appointed an internal marketing assistant as our first addition to the Marketing Team. She will be the go to guru for all the web related and social media content, plus she will keep all the members and consumers up to date with the latest news and events within the Houlden Group.Graduating with a First Class Honours degree in Fashion Marketing with 2 years’ experience within the bridal and marketing sector, Nicola will use her knowledge gained to develop the Houlden marketing strategy and implement the new Jewellers of Excellence initiative.Nicola says, “I would like to thank the Houlden team for making me feel welcome and I am looking forward to my new role. Jewellers of Excellence initiative is a fabulous conception and I am looking forward to promoting the brand to consumers and guiding them to the members stores.”I am sure you will all meet Nicola soon at Houlden events and in the office but if you need to contact the office for marketing purposes please contact Nicola on [email protected].

Houlden welcome Nicola Gaffney




Houlden Group Members Invest in Exquisite Refurbishments

Members Corner

Houlden members are continually investing in their stores to make them stand out from the competition.Two retailers who have been busy over the summer are Rudells and Jamieson & Carry.See their transformations below.Rudells Harborne undergo a stunning refurbishment

In July, Rudells Harborne showroom underwent a fabulous face lift to create a bright and welcoming space for its clients. Marrying mirrored walls with white floor tiles and beautiful crystal chandeliers, it oozes sophistication and showcases Rudells collections exquisitely. Here is a taster of its new transformation. The fit out was completed by Hallmark Shopfitting.

Jamieson & Carry have been busy in June refitting their front of shop and they are delighted with the results.It took two weeks to completely renovate and the customer feedback has been fantastic. As you can see by the image the transformation displays the stock beautifully. The fit out was completed by Watt Brothers in Devon.

A fresh look for Jamieson & Carry

Patek Philippe hosted its annual Retailers Golf Day from 7th to 9th September at the Brocket Hall in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Included in the 32 golfers taking part were Houlden members, Michael Hyman, Christopher Carry, Joe Walsh, Wendy Laing and Chris Andrews. Along with the tough competition, the golfers were welcomed with a champagne reception and dinner across both nights to celebrate the winners of the day, unfortunately this year there were no Houlden winners! Great event, but Houlden members need

to spend a bit more time on the golf course to bring home the trophy next year.

Patek Philippe Golf Day

To celebrate Laing Edinburgh reaching the milestone of 175 years a special jewellery piece has been created. The one-off ‘175’ diamond necklet is worth a spectacular £175,000 and will be showcased at Laing Edinburgh’s brand new store on George Street: the £1.3 million flagship showroom will be designed and fitted out with the highest specification. Not only was the 175 name inspired for Laing’s turning 175 but it symbolized the creation process of 1 piece, inspired by 7 women of Laing and crafted by 5 experienced Laing specialists. The necklet is made with superior cut diamonds that weigh a total of 25 carats making it a special piece for the potential customer. With a new move plus the creation of this stunning necklet, Laing’s are celebrating their 175th anniversary in style.

175 year celebration of Laing Edinburgh

Banks Lyon have recently sponsored the Lady Riders’ Handicap Hurdle Race at Cumbria Crystal Cup Day at Cartmel Racecourse, they are offering a further incentive for the winning jockey, an exquisite £5,000 18ct white gold diamond drop pendant. Banks Lyon see this as a fabulous opportunity to promote their store in the local area. Houlden believe this is an important aspect of your business as it creates greater depth to the brands’ values and we would encourage our members to take appropriate opportunities when they arise. Houlden wish them success with this initiative.

Promotional idea from Banks Lyon

Happy 200th Anniversary Thurlow Champness

Houlden would like to say a big Happy 200th Anniversary to Thurlow Champness from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. In the beginning, they made and sold beautifully hand crafted clocks and watches. The business soon introduced fine jewellery and diamonds to make it the store it is today. To celebrate this milestone they hosted a very special Rolex and Fope evening on 20th July at The Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket, Suffolk. We wish all at Thurlow Champness the best for the future and here is to the next 200 years in business!


Dates for the diaryHoulden Director meeting Glasgow. 6-7 October 2015

IGI, Diamond Grading Course Antwerp. 26-28 October 2015

Jewellery and Watch Birmingham Birmingham. 7-11 February 2016

Houlden London Event London. 22-24 February 2016

Houlden 40th Anniversary Party London. 23rd February 2016

Baselworld exhibition Basel. 17-24 March 2016

LUXURY and JCK Events Las Vegas. 31st May - 6th June 2016

Houlden Summer Getaway East Sussex National. 20-24 June 2016

Stay professional connected and follow us on ….



We would like to remind all members that there is an IGI Diamond Grading course scheduled to take place from Monday 26th to Wednesday 28th October 2015. This is a worthwhile opportunity for attendees and was very well received at the last course in May with high recommendations all round.

Located in Antwerp, this is the ideal town for a weekend break away from the store to expand your knowledge on grading diamonds and see some of the beautiful sights the town has to offer. The cost of the course is £450 plus travel and accommodation. This is a brilliant opportunity for your staff to attend as it expands their knowledge and gives them greater confidence when selling the product in store. It is a bargain price that will have long term benefits for the business and also the staff member. To register your interest in this course, or for more information please contact Siobhan at the Houlden office for details.

Invites for the Houlden London exhibition, in the Waldorf Hilton on the 23th February 2016, will be issued early November look out for your invitation arriving in the post.

There is always a high demand from suppliers attend our exhibition, unfortunately we can’t accommodate all our preferred suppliers! We invite suppliers based on member feedback and then we add those who have new or exclusive Houlden ranges to offer.

Should you not receive an invite, contact Siobhan to be added to the waiting list.

Book Your Accommodation Now!

IGI Diamond Grading Course

Houlden are excited to announce they are celebrating their 40th Anniversary. To mark the special occasion we are inviting all our members to a party on Tuesday 23rd February coinciding with our London Event in the brand new venue, the Waldorf Hilton. The location of the party is being secretly kept under wraps and will be revealed soon…watch this space.

Houlden have managed to secure brilliant deals on accommodation at the Waldorf exclusive to Houlden members and suppliers so book your accommodation by the 1st December to guarantee a room and receive the special rates. Contact Siobhan at the Houlden office or check the Houlden website for the booking reference. Look out for your exclusive invite and save the date to your diary now!

Supplier Invites to London 2016

With the recent unification of The British Jewellers Association (BJA) and the National Association of Goldsmiths (N.A.G), we would like to congratulate Michael Rawlinson on his appointment as CEO of the new trade association, the National Association of Jewellers (NAJ). We hope that the new organisation takes the opportunity to review the retail member credentials and that members being part of the association will maintain the highest ethical integrity. We wish Michael all the best in his new role as CEO.

Congratulations to the new CEO of NAJ

Tuesday 23 February, London

Save the Date Now

ANNIVERSARY PARTY 40

TH

IN THIS EDITION: pg1: pg2: Jewellers of Excellence · organisers of the 60th anniversary of IJL....

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