Goldsmiths may be a dying breed in Singapore but those willing to rebrand themselves and become jewellers often succeed in crafting a glittering new career as a retailer.
This was the take of Ms Kee Ai Nah, director of Spring Singapore's retail division, who said that many of today's successful jewellery firms in Singapore started out as goldsmiths.
Official figures from the Department of Statistics show that the local jewellery sector comprises 750 establishments and employs about 5,400 workers here.
"The jewellery sector is one of the key sub-sectors of the retail industry in terms of value-add," said Ms Kee.
"It contributed about $1.4 billion in operating receipts in 2005 and labour productivity of the sector was actually 13 per cent higher than the retail industry average." Ms Kee also said that many of these firms have been established in Singapore for decades.
Besides Poh Heng Jewellery, which was founded in 1948, other notable jewellers such as On Cheong Jewellery, Tin Sing Jewellery, Larry Jewellery and Orient all hark back more than 50 years.
"They are also usually family owned businesses, run by second generation owners," she added.
This characteristic is evident even in newer jewellery chains such as the Aspial-Lee Hwa Group, Soo Kee Jewellery and TianPo Jewellery which are all largely family owned.
Ms Kee said rebranding is still not common among established jewellers, as most prefer not to change their traditional brand name.
But she pointed out that some jewellers here have taken steps to evolve so as to stay relevant to modern consumers.
She cited the example of On Cheong Jewellery, a local firm which celebrated its 70th anniversary just last year.
The jeweller's managing director, Mr Ho Nai Chuen, recently conducted a rebranding exercise for On Cheong.
"On Cheong is an old brand name, so we felt that we needed a rebranding exercise to revamp the entire business to attract the new generation of customers," said Mr Ho.
"It was important for our business to change the mindset of consumers and make them aware that we don't just sell gold, we also retail precious gems, jade and diamonds," added the second-generation entrepreneur.
After an initial bad experience with a branding agency, Mr Ho approached Spring and signed up for its BrandPact programme.
BrandPact is an initiative by Spring that promoted branding as a tool to enhance the capability of local companies.
Spring said that the programme provides firms with access to brand exploratory workshops, expert help from brand specialists and online resources.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on September 10, 2008.
