Jewelry Business Closures Climb 34% in Q1
mrearlygold
Posts: 17,858 ✭✭✭
May 4, 2016
Warwick, R.I.--The number of companies exiting the jewelry industry continues to climb due to a number of different factors, and the trend is not expected to reverse course anytime soon.
Data released this week by the Jewelers Board of Trade shows that in the United States and Canada, a total of 335 businesses ceased operations in the first quarter 2016, compared with 250 in the first quarter 2015. That’s a 34 percent increase.
Closings among manufacturers drove up the first quarter percentage increase as they more than doubled, from 15 in the first quarter 2015 to 34 this year.
The number of wholesalers ceasing operations rose from 38 to 46, a 21 percent year-over-year increase, while the number of retailers closing climbed from 250 to 335.
“The factors are in place for there to be fewer stores, for that pace to pretty much continue as it is.” --Anthony Capuano, JBT president
There also was a jump in the number of consolidations (sales/mergers), which rose from 28 in Q1 2015 to 53 in the first quarter this year, an 89 percent jump.
In an interview with National Jeweler on Monday, former JBT President Dione Kenyon, who will continue with JBT on a part-time basis through the summer, said the same factors that have been contributing to business closings since they began to spike in 2014 continue to do so today.
Among them are the retirement of baby boomer-aged store owners; competition from online sellers; and consumers with less discretionary income and more choices.
Both Kenyon and JBT’s new president, Anthony Capuano, agreed that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
Addressing specifically the closing of retail stores, which increased 29 percent in the first quarter, Capuano noted that the aging ownership of the family-owned independent jewelers and the shift to online retailing, “aren’t going to go away overnight.”
MORE HERE: MORE
Warwick, R.I.--The number of companies exiting the jewelry industry continues to climb due to a number of different factors, and the trend is not expected to reverse course anytime soon.
Data released this week by the Jewelers Board of Trade shows that in the United States and Canada, a total of 335 businesses ceased operations in the first quarter 2016, compared with 250 in the first quarter 2015. That’s a 34 percent increase.
Closings among manufacturers drove up the first quarter percentage increase as they more than doubled, from 15 in the first quarter 2015 to 34 this year.
The number of wholesalers ceasing operations rose from 38 to 46, a 21 percent year-over-year increase, while the number of retailers closing climbed from 250 to 335.
“The factors are in place for there to be fewer stores, for that pace to pretty much continue as it is.” --Anthony Capuano, JBT president
There also was a jump in the number of consolidations (sales/mergers), which rose from 28 in Q1 2015 to 53 in the first quarter this year, an 89 percent jump.
In an interview with National Jeweler on Monday, former JBT President Dione Kenyon, who will continue with JBT on a part-time basis through the summer, said the same factors that have been contributing to business closings since they began to spike in 2014 continue to do so today.
Among them are the retirement of baby boomer-aged store owners; competition from online sellers; and consumers with less discretionary income and more choices.
Both Kenyon and JBT’s new president, Anthony Capuano, agreed that the trend will continue for the foreseeable future.
Addressing specifically the closing of retail stores, which increased 29 percent in the first quarter, Capuano noted that the aging ownership of the family-owned independent jewelers and the shift to online retailing, “aren’t going to go away overnight.”
MORE HERE: MORE
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