NAJ host Ministerial visit to Jewellery Quarter
19 May 2022
Andrew Morton (left), Paul Scully and Ben Massey at Weston Beamor
Last week Minister Paul Scully visited Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter to meet with representatives and members of the National Association of Jewellers.
On Thursday 12th May, Minister Scully, Under Secretary of State in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) met with NAJ Principal Officer, Ben Massey and members of the Association.
The visit was planned to help Minister Scully and the wider BEIS department learn more about the jewellery sector and the challenges manufacturing, supply and retail elements of the trade are facing.
Ben Massey, NAJ Principal Officer said,
“It was a great opportunity to highlight the very real issues that the jewellery sector is faced with. Recruitment and retention of people, import and export pressures, particularly with the island of Ireland and removing barriers for consumers to visit jewellery stores were key points members presented.
“Minister Scully was keen to understand the process of how a piece of jewellery goes through many hands before it reaches the customer, more unique to the jewellery sector than others. We’d welcome the chance to meet with the minister and other government colleagues in other areas of the UK to reinforce these issues as well as others pertinent to the location."
A visit to Han Goldwyn with a demonstration from Brian Craddock
In his short time in the Jewellery Quarter, Minister Scully whose responsibilities include retail, consumer goods, personal care as well as hospitality, weddings, nightclubs and pubs visited Weston Beamor, JQ Diamonds and Han Goldwyn.
Andrew Morton, Managing Director at Weston Beamor said,
“Business has been excellent for the WB Group in this last 24 month period and it was a pleasure to talk to the minister about how we’re harnessing change, flexibility and efficiency across the various business units.
“In recent years new pressures have arrived into the trade, but an ongoing and consistent challenge for many jewellery business has been the labour market. While the sector is not innocent when it comes to having to do more collectively to attract people into the trade, I feel government can provide more support with structures for skills development, broaden the awareness and expectations of potential employees, specifically at school and college leaver age, and make urban areas a more accessible place to work and live."
Paul Scully discussing business challenges with Leesha Kaur at JQ Diamonds
Leesha Kaur, Operations Manager at Sonny’s Jewellers and JQ Diamonds said,
“It was a pleasure to host Minister Scully last week. As well as share what our customer journey looks like, I was determined to highlight the issues parking, clean air zones, working from home and selling online is having on a business like ours. These, in addition to trade-wide challenges on recruitment and retention were something that I know is increasingly frustrating for other businesses in this area, and many like it in the country.”
The visit took place ahead of NAJ’s submission to the Online Sales Tax Consultation, a response which is being co-ordinated via the Independent Retailers Confederation. The NAJ has also recently joined a manufacturing roundtable with a specific focus on skills and recruitment.
Source: National Association of Jewellers