The industry group representing the nation’s jewelry makers has completed a five-day experiment in overlapping trade shows aimed at reinvigorating the fashion jewelry market and preserving Rhode Island’s share.
To label the experiment an unqualified success would be an exaggeration, given the shows’ steady but unspectacular attendance, according to John Harvey, a spokesman for the Providence-based Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America.
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Rather, the combined Fashion Jewelry World Expo and Expo Providence provided a forum for evaluating the industry’s needs in an increasingly global marketplace.
The FJWE was a first-of-its-kind event for buyers of fashion jewelry and accessories who are accustomed to “running from building to building and show room to show room” in search of the latest products, Harvey said. When the regional Jewelry Manufacturers Association and United Jewelry Show hold their “market weeks” in New York and Providence, they consist of one-on-one transactions in enclosed spaces, Harvey said. What’s more, they “don’t have the pull they enjoyed in the 1960s through 1980s,” he said.
The FJWE, which took place May 14-16 at the Rhode Island Convention Center, had domestic and foreign exhibitors selling their goods under one roof.
The event, sponsored by the MJSA in conjunction with the JMA and the UJS, was an attempt to “modernize” the process by making it “easy on the buyer,” Harvey said.
Events like the FJWE are not new to manufacturers of precious jewelry. Indeed, the segment of the industry that uses all or mostly valuable, natural materials in manufacturing has enjoyed similar events for years. Fashion, or costume, jewelry makers “aren’t used to doing business this way,” Harvey said.
Attendance at the FJWE had not been calculated at press time. However, Harvey said it was not overwhelming. “The traffic was never huge. We didn’t have packed halls,” he said. The real significance of the event was in the variety of sellers and buyers, he said.
Businesses from countries as diverse as Sweden and Pakistan were among the approximately 80 exhibitors at the FJWE. A contingent of 15 were represented by the World Brotherhood of Fashion Jewelry based in Menorca, Baeleric Islands, Spain.
Harrod’s of London, Zales, Service Merchandise and Wal-Mart were among some of the more notable buyers.
”I think having foreign exhibitors in the show helped everybody because they attract new buyers,” Harvey said.
In fact, many local businesses commented that the new faces were refreshing and often beneficial, he said. “Maybe they came to see the Spanish exhibitors but went by a Rhode Island booth and bought something they hadn’t considered before.”
Peter Waterman, a jewelry manufacturer out of Providence’s Davol Square, was still pumped three days after the show ended.
”I definitely feel that (MJSA president) Jim Marquart and his staff put on one very professional show for the first time around,” Waterman said. “I was very surprised at the number of foreign buyers that attended. I had a very good show and did business with a lot of accounts, both foreign and domestic.”
Waterman said he got orders from Indonesian, Brazilian, Swedish, and Spainish buyers, among others, and that the cost of his booth paid for itself “by far.”
He had a bold prediction about future events of this kind.
”Shows like this can just end up making Providence, Rhode Island, the jewelry capital of the world again,” Waterman said.
Expo Providence – sponsored solely by the MJSA and now in its 40th year – was mostly business as usual, featuring suppliers of raw materials, machinery and components to jewelry manufacturers. That it followed the FJWE and concluded on May 18 distinguished it from previous years.
The timing created a one-stop shopping and networking experience for both halves of the fashion jewelry industry, Harvey said.
With 150 exhibitors, the event drew just over 2,200 in its first two days – a number that was on a par with previous years, Harvey said. A third-day figure was not available at press time.
”Although the traffic this year was steady, it’s not increasing,” Harvey said.
Rhode Island is home to more than 700 jewelry manufacturers, employing about 13,000 people.
