When our
company first started trading in the mid-1960s, Britain, and especially
Birmingham, had a booming jewellery manufacturing industry. The Hockley
jewellery quarter, now primarily a museum destination, led the world in high
end and high volume jewellery production.
Last year
saw the demise of one of the last remaining high volume costume jewellery
manufacturers in the British Isles, Andersen’s of Limerick. It is an
undisputable fact that a major share of the world’s fashion jewellery
production is nowadays centred on the Asia Pacific and South East Asia regions.
Countries such as China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam now
hold sway.
The value of
the market in international terms is mind-boggling. India alone has a £10
billion organised and unorganised market for precious, semi-precious and
artificial jewellery. As this represents just an 8% global share, we are
looking at a total world market of something like £130 billion, give or take a
billion or two. If the UK had held on to its historical industry, the tax
revenues generated today would comfortably pay for a very large number of
schools and hospitals.
The industry
is not without its controversies. Just as in the production of cheap clothing
in countries like Bangladesh, employers are castigated for exploiting cheap
labour and using potentially harmful toxic materials in finished products. A
recent batch of products from China, for example, were found to contain unsafe
levels of cadmium, a sobering thought next time you are buying presents for
your teenage daughter.
As with many
industries, the UK and other European countries still lead the world in fashion
jewellery design and brand awareness. Paris is one of the best places for
designers and you can find many workshops and studios in Montmartre and Marais.
There is no doubt that Europe possesses the top design skills. It also
represents, along with the USA, the top market for volume consumption, with
specialist retail outlets on every high street and an insatiable demand for the
cheapest possible bling.
Jewellery is
almost unique as a manufacturing industry in that it employs a disproportionate
number of finishing processes in its production. A typical costume jewellery
production facility will involve precious metal and other compound metal electroplating,
pre-treatments, ultrasonic cleaning, vibratory barrelling and centrifugal
polishing, heat treatments, effluent water treatment and much more.
These are
all skills that the UK and Europe has in abundance. So we have changed from
being producers of the final products to being manufacturers of the machinery
that makes the final products. Our expertise is also in demand to train our
Asian counterparts in the skills needed to produce products that have high
quality finishes, are robust in construction and safe for the consumer.
Our company
regularly makes sales to the Asia Pacific region, including items such as
process plants, mass finishing machinery, cleaning systems and water treatment
plants. It is turning into one of our most vibrant export markets.
Later this
year, the Singapore Surface Finishing Association is hosting Surfin 2014, a
conference and exhibition for the surface finishing industry in the entire Asia
Pacific region. With the historical ties that Singapore has to the UK, it would
be beneficial if some of our companies would participate in this important
event for the industry. Asia is the new frontier, and we ignore it at our
peril.
