Jeweller - June 2026

VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY JUNE 2026
Refined in Style
IS YOUR JEWELLERY STORE MEETING
CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS?
Crucible & Creation
JEWELLERS CONTINUE A TRADITION
AS OLD AS CIVILISATION
A Step Too Far
WHERE SHOULD BRANDS DRAW
THE LINE WITH MARKETING?

2 | June 2026

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June 2026 | 3
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For over 15 years, Pink Kimberley has been devoted to crafting exceptional pink diamond
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6 | June 2026

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June 2026 | 7

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June 2026 | 9

10 | June 2026

IS YOUR JEWELLERY STORE MEETING
CONSUMER EXPECTATIONS?
VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY JUNE 2026
JEWELLERS CONTINUE A TRADITION
AS OLD AS CIVILISATION
WHERE SHOULD BRANDS DRAW
THE LINE WITH MARKETING?
JUNE 2026
Contents
This Month
Industry Facets
13 Editorial
26
10 YEARS AGO
Time Machine: June 2016
30 CASTING & REFINING
Rinse & repeat
Jewellers are keeping a tradition
alive that has existed as long as
civilisation itself. How many retail
businesses can claim the same?
14 Upfront
16 News
24 Events
29
48
50
LEARN ABOUT GEMS
Australia: South Australia
MY BENCH
Gong Zhang
SOAPBOX
Melanie Hancock
Features
30
36
39
CASTING & REFINING
Explore the ancient roots of the jewellery business
AGGRESSIVE MARKETING
Did Pandora's latest promotional campaign go too far?
FASHION JEWELLERY
Ditch the classification and sell with pride and confidence
36 CONFUSION!
Industry hijacking
Pandora's latest marketing campaign,
centred around lab-created diamonds,
has stirred up long-running tensions.
Better Your Business
42
44
BUSINESS FEATURE
DOUG FLEENER highlights importance lessons in business leadership.
SELLING
JEANNIE WALTERS explains why customer service is everyone's job.
45
46
47
MANAGEMENT
LEON VAN MEGEN encourages you to prepare your business for winter.
MARKETING & PR
DONNA ST JEAN CONTI details a new trend in retail business management.
LOGGED ON
MICHAEL HINSHAW reveals how you can help your employees using data.
39 FASHION JEWELLERY
The next step?
It's human nature to want
to neatly categorise and define
everything; however, do the 'fine' and
'fashion' tags really matter?
FRONT COVER
Australian Diamond Trading
Corporation is a leading diamond
supplier, established in 1986. A
second-generation family business
that is proudly Australian-owned,
ADTC has long-standing relationships
with suppliers around the world and
decades of experience providing
solutions to clients nationwide.
Learn more: www.adtc.com.au
Refined in Style
Crucible & Creation
A Step Too Far
June 2026 | 11

12 | June 2026

Editor’s Desk
Walking the fine line between exclusivity and obscurity
People have lost the plot over the new Swatch x Audemars Piguet launch.
Or, as SAMUEL ORD explains, they merely failed to see the plot twist.
It happened again! You'll have to forgive
me for being somewhat sentimental, but
the explosive reaction to the release of
the Swatch x Audemars Piguet ‘Royal Pop’
collection has left me feeling nostalgic.
When I joined Jeweller four years ago
- how time flies – one of the biggest
stories in the industry was the launch of
the MoonSwatch. It was described as an
‘audacious’ and ‘daring’ collaboration
between distinct brands, and because it
wasn’t available online, long queues formed
at shopping centres around the world.
Some people camped out overnight, and
many left empty-handed and bitter. While the
Australian release of the collection inspired
mainstream media attention, in other
countries, police had to be called as violence
broke out among impatient consumers.
Images of tents, fold-out chairs, and snaking
queues looked more like an Apple product
launch than a watch launch. Yet the crowds
weren't there for the latest iPhone; they
were there for watches. From a marketing
perspective, it was fascinating and served
as a worthy introduction to the luxury
industry, where there’s never a dull day.
Leaping forward four years, a similar story
has unfolded with a new supporting cast.
The latest collaboration pairs Swatch with
Audemars Piguet, one of Switzerland's most
prestigious watchmakers.
The result? Once again, we see crowds,
confrontations, arrests, police intervention,
and temporary store closures in cities
around the world. It was a different watch
collection but the same ‘story’.
I've read some media critics suggest it
was disappointing that neither brand took
significant steps to prevent the unrest and
chaos. I'd argue that this misses the point.
No responsible company wants consumers
injured or arrested. Equally, however, the
story of a watch launch centred on orderly
queues and well-behaved shoppers was
never going to dominate mainstream
headlines worldwide.
The crowds became part of the story.
Nobody is interested in a news report
about consumers quietly standing in line
and purchasing a product. Boring!
People pay attention to spectacle.
The irony is that many of the images used
to criticise the launch may contribute to its
success in the 'big picture'.
Since the day that the collaboration was
announced, much of the critical discussion
has centred on the importance of exclusivity.
Audemars Piguet, established in 1875,
occupies rarefied air in luxury. To some,
partnering with Swatch risks diluting that
carefully cultivated aura.
These are fair questions to ask. Luxury
brands have long leaned on exclusivity to
justify and maintain their position in the
upper echelon of the market. When a brand
becomes too accessible, many rightfully fear
that it becomes less desirable.
There’s another side to this equation,
and that is the fear of irrelevance - no
company or brand wants the anxiety of
being forgotten, no longer needed, or falling
behind. It's the antithesis of capitalism.
Consider, for example, parallels in the
world of supercars – Ferrari sells relatively
inexpensive hats, shirts, and jackets. Why?
One of the best examples that illustrates the
answer to this riddle comes from the sitcom
Friends. In a highly memorable episode
that aired in 1999, fan-favourite Joey,
played by Matt LeBlanc, constructs
something resembling a vehicle with
cardboard boxes and hides it beneath a
car cover. He spends much ofthe episode
standing in the street, dressed head to toe
in Porsche merchandise, convinced that
this ploy will attract the attention of women.
The joke works because everyone
understands what Porsche represents.
To the best of my knowledge, throughout
the show’s run, Joey never ended up owning
a Porsche, despite becoming a successful
actor. Most people never will, and the same
goes for Ferrari.
These car companies aren’t expecting
every customer who buys a hat to
eventually purchase a supercar. That’s not
the point. The point is visibility. Likewise,
most people will never own an Audemars
Piguet. That doesn't mean these brands
are willing to risk disappearing from public
consciousness. In fact, quite the opposite.
Luxury brands need broad awareness, even
if they sell to a narrow audience.
Nobody is
interested
in a news
report about
consumers
quietly standing
in line and
purchasing a
product.
Boring!
People pay
attention to
spectacle.
If consumers don't recognise the name
or understand the status, then the value
proposition begins to weaken. The dream
matters almost as much as the product.
That's why collaborations such as these can
be so powerful. They introduce luxury brands
to consumers who might otherwise never
encounter them. They generate headlines
beyond specialist media. Most importantly,
they keep brands culturally relevant.
It's all too easy for those of us within the
watch and jewellery industry to forget how
insulated our trade can be. It’s easy to
assume certain brands are household names
because they're so well known in the industry.
Before this collaboration was announced,
how many members of the general public
were aware of Audemars Piguet? How many
consumers could confidently pronounce the
name? I'd wager the number is considerably
higher today than it was a few months ago.
Certainly, questions about crowd
management and consumer safety deserve
consideration. No product launch should
result in injuries or public disorder. Those
concerns are legitimate; however, how much
accountability can we really place on watch
brands for the chaos that unfolds at shopping
centres? That is a slippery slope!
There are also broader questions about
the raw power of social media and FOMO
(Fear of Missing Out).
While FOMO is not a new business
phenomenon - it has always existed - today,
technology such as Instagram, YouTube, and
TikTok has elevated it to a level that previous
generations of marketers could scarcely
imagine - but is this a ‘good’ thing?
The outcome is difficult to ignore. People are
talking about Audemars Piguet and Swatch.
According to one resale platform, most
prospective buyers were entirely new to the
platform. This suggests the collaboration has
broken beyond traditional watch circles.
People who had never considered either
brand are now conscious of them, and
awareness is often the most important step.
After all, consumers can't aspire to own
something they've never heard of.
Exclusivity without aspiration is obscurity.
SAMUEL ORD
EDITOR
June 2026 | 13

Upfront
Rewind: Best Bench Tip
Stranger Things
Weird, wacky and wonderful
jewellery news from around the world
SEPTEMBER 2015
Golden age recovered
A remarkable collection of gold
jewellery dating back 3,500 years has
been recovered during archaeological
excavations at the ancient site of
Kolona on the Greek island of Aegina.
This discovery, announced by the
Greek Ministry of Culture, provides
a fascinating new glimpse into the
wealth, elitism, and trade networks of
the Middle Bronze Age Aegean.
The haul includes eight bipartite
discoid gold pendants.
From heist to Hollywood
A film about the Louvre Museum's
jewellery heist is in development,
according to the French trade media.
The heist occurred on 19 October,
2025, with more than $140 million in
jewellery stolen. It caused a security
crisis at the museum and resulted in
the resignation of director Laurence
des Cars. Publisher Flammarion
confirmed the sale of the book's
film rights to production company
Iconoclast. The film's title and cast
have yet to be announced.
Trying something different
A rather unusual approach to
proposal has gone ‘viral’ online, after
a man proposed to his long-term
partner with 100 pounds of sapphire
gravel. The bride-to-be shared the
proposal on social media platform
Reddit, sharing a photo of multi-
coloured sapphires collected from the
gravel. According to the couple, the
gravel was sourced from a mine in
Montana, and after processing, around
100 rough sapphires were recovered.
The largest gemstone recovered was
around 4-carats and will be used as a
centrestone in an engagement ring.
“There’s no wrong way to
make jewellery.”
SARINA CUNNINGHAM
SARINEL DESIGNER JEWELLERY
HISTORIC GEMSTONE
The Bazu
The Bazu was a diamond
weighing 32.62 carats.
Though it was mentioned
only once in historical
records, its placement was
extraordinary. It featured in
the Order of the Golden Fleece,
arguably the most decadent
piece of jewellery in 18th-century
Europe. Commissioned around 1749
by King Louis XV, , it was a masterpiece
featuring not only the French Blue diamond, later recut
into the Hope Diamond, and the Bazu, but also the
107-carat Côte de Bretagne spinel, among other rare treasures.
In September 1792, the Golden Fleece was stolen.
Celebrating natural treasures
The Natural Diamond Council has
described the inaugural edition of ‘World
Diamond Day’ as a rousing success.
Recently, the Natural Diamond Council
encouraged suppliers, retailers, and consumers
to use the day to celebrate natural diamonds
globally. The date (8 April) was chosen because
April’s birthstone is diamond, and the number eight
represents infinity. Participants were encouraged to use social
media on the day to post content acknowledging the significance
of natural diamonds. Contributors posted stories using the hashtags
#WorldDiamondDay and #NaturalDiamonds.
Timeless Trends
Charms are set to be a major trend
over the next year, driven by the increasing
range of styles available and consumers’
increasing interest in personalised fashion.
More than just small accessories, charms
offer a simple way to celebrate meaningful
memories and milestones, while also
giving budget-conscious consumers an
inexpensive way to refresh their style.
Campaign Watch
Swarovski has launched its second
collection with global ambassador
Ariana Grande, a 29-piece gardeninspired
line featuring flowers and
dragonflies. The launch follows the
partnership’s January 2025 debut,
which came after Grande’s appointment
as an ambassador in July 2024.
Images: Thomas Sabo
Images: Swarovski
VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY
Published by Befindan Media Pty Ltd
PO Box 4197, Balwyn East, VIC 3103 AUSTRALIA | ABN 66 638 077 648 | Phone: +61 3 9696 7200 | Subscriptions & Enquiries: info@jewellermagazine.com
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• Production Prince Bisenio art@befindanmedia.com • Digital Coordinator Riza Buliag riza@jewellermagazine.com • Accounts Julia Carvalho finance@befindanmedia.com
Copyright All material appearing in Jeweller is subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly forbidden without prior written consent of the publisher. Befindan Media Pty Ltd
strives to report accurately and fairly and it is our policy to correct significant errors of fact and misleading statements in the next available issue. All statements made, although based on information
believed to be reliable and accurate at the time, cannot be guaranteed and no fault or liability can be accepted for error or omission. Any comment relating to subjective opinions should be addressed to
the editor. Advertising The publisher reserves the right to omit or alter any advertisement to comply with Australian law and the advertiser agrees to indemnify the publisher for all damages or liabilities
arising from the published material.

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June 2026 | 15

News
Another jump in sales for
Australian jewellers
Sales analysis of independent jewellery stores
across Australia has been headlined by another
increase in April.
Sales increased by 5 per cent in April on a year-onyear
comparison, according to the data collected
from Retail Edge Consultants across more than
400 independent jewellery stores in Australia and
New Zealand.
Unit sales declined by 7 per cent on a year-on-year
comparison and were 15 per cent lower than in
2024. The report noted that this decline remains
consistent with broader trading patterns, with
reduced transaction frequency continuing to define
the current environment.
The average retail sale (inventory only) increased to
$357, an increase of 17 per cent on a year-on-year
comparison and 32 per cent higher than in April
2024. Retail Edge Consultants general manager Leon
van Megen said that with volume unlikely to recover
as a near-term lever, consistent conversion at higher
price points remains the primary determinant of
revenue outcomes.
“Revenue growth held firm in April, extending the
pattern established in prior months,” van Megen said.
“Performance continues to be driven by highervalue
conversions rather than increased transaction
activity. With volume unlikely to recover as a nearterm
growth lever, consistent conversion at higher
price points remains the primary determinant of
revenue outcomes.”
He added: “Customers are purchasing less frequently
but with greater intent with items at a higher value.
This places increasing pressure on conversion
quality at the individual interaction level, where each
customer visit carries more commercial weight than
in prior periods.”
In terms of specific categories, diamond jewellery
sales improved by 7 per cent in April on a oneyear
comparison and 29 per cent on a two-year
comparison.
Colour gemstone jewellery increased by 8 per cent
year-on-year and sat 25 per cent higher than in 2024.
Jewellery without a diamond or colour gemstone
improved by 7 per cent in April.
Finally, silver and alternative metals jewellery sales
jumped by 25 per cent year-on-year.
“Silver and alternative metals showed recovery
following a softer prior year. While accessible pricing
remains a key strength, the category continues to
be more exposed to fluctuations in lower-value
purchasing behaviour,” van Megen explained.
“Performance indicates it supports transaction
flow, but has limited influence on overall revenue
progression.”
These figures follow a seven per cent rise in jewellery
sales in March and February and a 12 per cent
increase in January.
Million-dollar reward on offer in opal cold case
A $1 million reward is being offered for
information concerning the death of opal miner
Paul Murray in New South Wales in 1995.
Murray owned an opal mining field and lived
about eight kilometres outside Lightning Ridge,
at a campsite where he had been staying for
five years at the time of his death. Murray had
moved to Lightning Ridge in 1990 to be closer to
a relative.
Murray was last seen alive on 19 March, 1995,
when a local dropped him off on the outskirts of
Lightning Ridge. He was reported missing to the
police one week later, and around a month after
he was last seen, his decomposing body was
found in scrub about two kilometres from the
campsite where Murray lived.
White Cliffs opal miners are celebrating after
the announcement that mineral claims in
the town’s primary mining field may now be
granted and renewed.
Opal mining has been central to the White
Cliffs community since the late 1800s and is a
significant source of employment and tourism for
the region.
White Cliffs miners were advised in August 2018
that, due to Native Title matters, all current
mining claims were pending, with only 16 claims
that could be worked. Since that time, White
Cliffs miners have had their livelihoods on hold,
waiting for a decision.
The declaration of the White Cliffs Main Field as
an “Approved Opal or Gem Mining Area” under
Section 26C of the Native Title Act 1993 now
provides a legal framework for the granting and
renewal of mineral claims.
The decision follows years of complex
negotiations between the NSW Government,
Commonwealth authorities, and the Barkandji
Native Title Holders. President of the White Cliffs
Miners Association, Troy Karkoe, said it was an
important decision for the local community.
“From a miners’ perspective, being able to peg
new ground is something like a dream come
true,” Karkoe said.
A post-mortem examination and a 1996 coronial
inquest found no signs of trauma. In 2012, the
State Crime Command's Unsolved Homicide
Unit created Strike Force Huddleston to
investigate the death.
Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism
Yasmin Catley said that after three
decades without closure, the Murray family
deserved answers.
“Paul was a much-loved brother and
a vulnerable man whose life ended in
circumstances that remain unexplained.
Someone may know what happened to him, and
it is never too late to come forward," Catley said.
“This $1 million reward is about helping police
get the information they need to find the truth
for Paul and his family."
Despite $100,000 and $500,000 rewards being
offered, no convictions have been made, and
NSW Police Detective Superintendent Joe
Doueihi said anyone with any information about
Murray’s death should contact investigators.
"The investigation has reached a stage where
it's at a stalemate," Doueihi said.
"We have no current active lines of enquiry that
will enhance the investigation, so it's now time
that we go to a million-dollar reward."
Victory at long last for opal miners in White Cliffs
“The White Cliffs miners cannot express our
gratitude enough for the help from the Member
for Parkes on what has been a trying time for
the whole community – 2,761 days to be precise.
“The boost to the whole community will benefit
everyone – opal shops, Air BnBs, the local store,
hotel and underground motel will all benefit with
the increase in tourism.”
Minister for Natural Resources, Courtney
Houssos, said the recent determination will
ensure that continues to be the case.
“We understand how important opal mining
is to the White Cliffs community. This
determination provides long-needed certainty
for White Cliffs and supports an industry that
has supported the community for more than a
century," Houssos said.
“White Cliffs is one of only two opal mining
districts in NSW and produces some of the rarest
types of opal in the world.
"This decision protects local jobs, strengthens
tourism and supports the long-term future of
the community.”
The NSW Government has announced that
staff will be deployed to the town this week to
assist miners with the transition to the new
claims process.
16 | June 2026

News
Extraordinary jewellery exhibition heads to
Melbourne for the first time
A showcase of one of the world’s most
impressive jewellery collections will begin
at the National Gallery of Victoria soon.
More than 350 tiaras, brooches, timepieces, and
necklaces from Cartier will appear as part of
the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces collection,
opening on 12 June and closing on 4 October.
The exhibition includes Cartier’s Scroll Tiara,
crafted in 1902 in the brand's signature ‘Garland
style’ and worn by Clementine Churchill at the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
Other highlights include the Sun Tiara of 1907,
with a 32-carat fancy intense yellow diamond
at its centre, and the Art Deco diamond-andplatinum
Halo Tiara of 1934, inspired by Egypt.
A war of words has erupted between Pandora,
the world’s largest jewellery brand, and the
Natural Diamond Council, a global not-for-profit
organisation dedicated to promoting the natural
diamond industry.
Pandora recently announced that it would
disclose all carbon emissions for every
lab-created diamond it sells, claiming these
stones have 'around' a 90 per cent smaller
environmental footprint than natural diamonds.
It was described as the introduction of a ‘fifth
C’ – adding ‘carbon’ to the traditional evaluation
model of cut, colour, clarity, and carat of
diamonds. Pandora CEO Berta de Pablos-
Barbier said the purpose of the exercise was to
increase the amount of information available
to consumers.
“We believe the future is about making diamonds
more accessible while giving customers clarity
on what they’re buying,” she said.
“We craft our jewellery with sustainability
in mind, and by introducing the fifth C,
we’re empowering consumers to make
informed choices.”
Pandora reportedly based the 90 per cent
figure on a comparison of carbon emissions
"Featuring nearly 400 extraordinary jewels,
gems, and jewellery objects, the exhibition
traces the evolution of Cartier’s enduring
legacy in art, design and craftsmanship," the
organisers explain.
"Spanning the Maison’s early years at the
turn of the 20th century through to its most
contemporary creations, the exhibition
chronicles the story of Cartier’s rise, told through
works commissioned, owned and worn by royalty
and Hollywood stars alike.
"Design drawings, sketchbooks and photographs
from the Cartier archives illuminate the creative
process behind the works, offering a rare
glimpse into their exceptional craftsmanship."
Cartier was founded in Paris by watchmaker
Louis-François Cartier in 1847. His grandsons,
Pierre, Louis, and Jacques, took the jewellery
brand to London and New York, and King Edward
VII described Cartier as the “jeweller of kings
and the king of jewellers” in 1904.
Among the collection are pieces worn by
Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Margaret, the Duchess
of Windsor, and Rihanna. The Cartier Collection
exhibition has been on display at the V&A
Museum in London since April 2025.
Pandora, NDC feud over ‘misleading’ campaign
associated with producing and cutting a mined
diamond, as noted in a 2019 study by the
Diamond Producers Association, which is now
the Natural Diamond Council.
The Natural Diamond Council has dismissed
the campaign as misleading. In an open letter, it
was said that Pandora had failed to distinguish
between two fundamentally different product
categories and that statements such as these
would only further confuse and mislead.
“Pandora’s latest campaign is another
disappointing PR stunt that unfairly attacks the
natural-diamond industry to promote synthetic
diamonds,” the Council said.
“This misleading narrative has real
consequences for the tens of millions of
people worldwide who depend on the naturaldiamond
industry.”
The letter continued: “If Pandora is serious
about advancing sustainability and supporting
the wider jewellery sector, the NDC encourages
the company to reengage constructively in
industry forums where both the natural and
synthetic diamond sectors are working to
strengthen environmental stewardship and
social responsibility.”
Lab-created diamond
jewellery marketing
ruled misleading
In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
published rulings on two jewellery retailers for
marketing lab-created diamond jewellery without an
explicit qualification.
The advertisements were brought to the ASA’s
attention by the Natural Diamond Council and
the London Diamond Bourse, with the rulings
published on 13 May. Based in Hong Kong, Linjer
Jewellers, published two promotions, the first with
the wording “Discover our brilliant diamonds.” The
second advertisement called the company’s jewellery
“sustainable,” with “ethically sourced gemstones.”
The company claimed it did not realise its marketing
breached any code, which requires jewellery sold
and advertised to use qualifiers when referring to
man-made diamonds, such as “lab-grown” or “labcreated.”
The ASA’s ruling requires the company to
remove the marketing material.
The ASA also addressed two Meta advertisements
from Novita Diamonds. Novita Diamonds is an
Australian-based retailer, with its website listing
showrooms in New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Spain,
Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.
The first showed an image of a diamond ring
alongside the text “Novita Diamonds ready-toship
engagement rings 1-10 days.” The second
advertisement included a video featuring diamond
rings, with text stating “timeless designs
premium diamonds.”
Novita Diamonds disagreed that its ads were
misleading, noting that they “did not state or imply the
diamonds were mined, natural, rare or extracted from
the earth.”
“Their [Novita Diamonds] brand identity was
exclusively lab-grown diamonds and there was
nothing in the brand name, creative execution, or
messaging that would reasonably lead consumers to
infer the diamonds were mined,” the ASA explained.
“They added that further information was made
immediately available to consumers engaging with
the ads, and there was no attempt to obscure, delay
or withhold information about origin.”
Despite this, the ASA ruling determined that the
marketing material was misleading.
“We understood that if the ads were clicked,
consumers were directed to the Novita Diamonds
website where there was information that the
diamonds were synthetic,” the ASA explained.
“However, we considered that it was material
information that should have been included upfront.
Because the ads did not make clear that Novita
Diamonds were synthetic, we concluded that they
were misleading.”
Novita Diamonds was informed it must not use the
term ‘diamond’ to describe lab-created diamond
products in isolation without a clear qualifier.
June 2026 | 17

News
Furious debate rages over
ownership of Koh-i-Noor
World Diamond Council president leads renewed
push for long-awaited conflict diamond reform
The newly-appointed president of the World
Diamond Council (WDC) has urged the
broader industry to expand the definition of
conflict diamonds.
At the Kimberley Process meeting in Mumbai,
Ronnie VanderLinden emphasised the need
to finalise reforms and highlighted the lack of
consensus on last year's proposed changes.
The long-running debate surrounding the future
of one of the world’s most famous diamonds has
resurfaced, ignited by unexpected commentary from
an unlikely source.
The 105-carat Koh-i-Noor is considered by many to be
the world’s most valuable diamond. It was discovered
at the Kollur Mine in India in the 14th century and was
passed between various regional powers before the
British annexation of Punjab in 1849.
The diamond was then ceded to Queen Victoria, and
the British royal family has maintained possession
of it for the past 170 years. In recent years, debate
has swirled over the potential return of the diamond
to India, among other places, given the considerable
controversy surrounding its current ownership.
Before King Charles III’s recent trip to New York,
Mayor Zohran Mamdani was asked at a press
conference what he would choose to discuss
with the British monarch.
“If I was to speak to the king … I would probably
encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond,”
Mamdani told media.
These comments have inflamed debate over the
future of the diamond. Many in the US media
dismissed Mamdani as rude and immature, while in
India he has been widely praised.
Since those comments, there has been no
confirmation if Mamdani, whose mother is an
Indian film-maker and whose father is a scholar
specialising in colonialism, raised the subject during
his interaction with King Charles III.
In an interview with The Guardian, author William
Dalrymple said that this debate was likely to intensify
in the years to come as India continues to evolve into
an increasingly influential international figure.
“What people have got to realise is the Koh-i-Noor is
still a hugely emotional issue,” he explained.
“On to this one little stone, sitting in a glass cabinet
in London, has been projected all the pain that South
Asia feels about colonialism.”
He added: “The British are going to need India more
and more, and need Indian benevolence more and
more. The Koh-i-Noor could easily become a major
diplomatic grenade in decades to come.”
In 2023, Queen Camilla Parker Bowles had the
diamond removed from the Queen Mother’s Crown to
avoid heightening political tension over the matter.
Established in 2003, the process aims to
prevent the trade in conflict diamonds, promote
responsible sourcing, and uphold policy priorities
of credibility, confidence, and compliance.
Currently, conflict diamonds are defined as rough
diamonds used by rebel movements to fund
wars against legitimate governments. Proposed
reforms would expand this definition to include
violence linked to non-state actors.
Additionally, some members at the previous
year's plenary in Dubai advocated for
the inclusion of violence by state actors.
VanderLinden urged renewed efforts to advance
reforms as industry and market conditions shift.
"We need to remind ourselves what this body
is for. We are not here to solve global conflict;
we are here to support confidence in natural
diamonds," he said.
"That includes continuing our work on changing
the definition of conflict diamonds to reflect the
reality of today, agreeing on that new definition,
and enshrining it in our core document."
As the Australian jewellery industry prepares for
new incoming financial reporting requirements,
a Canadian retailer has been fined for violating
similar regulations.
A financial penalty of more than $50,000
has been imposed on Birks Group for noncompliance
related to anti-money laundering and
counter-terrorism financing requirements.
The jeweller was found by the Financial
Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre
(FINTRAC) to have failed to develop and
apply written compliance policies and
procedures. Sarah Paquet, CEO of FINTRAC,
said it was critical that all businesses
comply with requirements.
“Canada’s Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-
Terrorist Financing Regime is in place to protect
the safety of Canadians and the security of
Canada’s economy,” Paquet said.
“FINTRAC works with businesses to help them
understand and comply with their obligations
VanderLinden also expressed concerns about
lab-created diamonds and encouraged the
industry to better convey the value of natural
stones and their impact on mining communities.
"If we are not helping sell natural diamonds, we
are not doing our job," he said.
"We have to understand what people expect
from us today. It is no longer enough to say
natural diamonds have value. We have to show
it," said VanderLinden.
He added that the industry must communicate
more effectively the origin, traceability, and
economic impact of natural diamonds, including
their contributions to employment, communities,
and national economies.
Jewellery retailer fined for failing to meet
anti-money laundering requirements
under the act. We are also firm in ensuring that
businesses continue to do their part, and we will
take appropriate actions when they are needed.”
Birks Group also failed to assess and document
the risk of a money-laundering or terroristfinancing
offence, and to carry out and document
the results of the prescribed review every two
years by an internal or external auditor.
According to various media sources, Birks
Group is appealing the ruling. The company is
headquartered in Montreal and operates around
30 stores.
• Under the new requirements, overseen by
AUSTRAC, all jewellery businesses dealing in
precious metals, stones, or finished products
must, by 1 July, determine whether they will
accept or make cash payments of $10,000
or more.
The changes are a part of broader overhauls
concerning anti-money laundering and counterterrorism
financing (AML/CTF) legislation.
18 | June 2026

News
Searay appointed as distributor for Yehuda’s
new advanced diamond detection tech
Local jewellery industry supplier Searay has
announced its appointment as the Australian and New
Zealand distributor for Yehuda’s Sherlock Holmes line
of diamond detection technology.
Yehuda, an industry leader in lab-created diamond
detection tools, has sold more than 16,000 diamond
detectors worldwide. The product line includes
the Watson AI and Sherlock AI diamond detectors,
designed to help jewellers, laboratories, dealers, and
manufacturers quickly and efficiently screen both
loose and mounted stones.
The latest Sherlock Holmes AI technology is
described as a major advancement in diamond
screening. Using proprietary lighting, imaging, and
artificial intelligence, the system helps identify and
classify multiple stone types, including diamonds,
cubic zirconia, and moissanite.
Ron Loccisano, director of Searay, said that
bringing this technology to the local market was an
exciting prospect.
“As the jewellery industry continues to face growing
challenges from lab-grown diamonds and simulants,
Australian and New Zealand jewellers need reliable
tools they can trust,” he said.
“Yehuda has been a respected name in this field for
many years, and we are proud to represent the brand
in Australia and New Zealand.”
The announcement noted that one of Yehuda’s
most unique innovations is its patent-pending cubic
zirconia detection technology. The company's system
can cause cubic zirconia to exhibit a distinct pink
fluorescence, enabling positive identification even in
very small stones.
The new Yehuda AI platform provides clear visual
results and colour-coded AI guidance, helping users
make faster and more confident decisions when
screening diamonds and diamond jewellery.
Dror Yehuda, president of Yehuda Diamond Company,
said that elevating the company’s presence in the
Australian market was a priority.
“We are very pleased to appoint Searay as our
distributor in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“Australia and New Zealand are important markets,
and we believe Searay’s strong industry relationships
and local presence will help bring Yehuda’s latest AI
detection technology to jewellers across the country.”
As part of the agreement, Searay will be
responsible for promoting, demonstrating, and
supporting Yehuda’s Watson AI and Sherlock AI
diamond detection machines throughout Australia
and New Zealand.
Retail Edge announces major update to jeweller software
Retail Edge Consultants has released an important
update to The Edge, featuring a wide range of
enhancements and new tools designed to support
independent jewellery businesses.
The company, based on the Gold Coast, said that
following extensive customer feedback, the release
delivers a broad set of practical improvements
designed to enhance day-to-day operations for
jewellery retailers. The update includes 21 feature
enhancements, additional fixes, and performance
upgrades, and is expected to roll out this month.
“This is part of a long-term shift. We are focused
on ensuring The Edge operates within a connected
ecosystem, rather than as a standalone system,”
general manager Leon van Megen said.
“This marks a new chapter for Retail Edge. We are
accelerating how we deliver improvements, while
continuing to modernise the platform through our
in-house engineering team.”
Among the highlights are a new Shopify integration,
enabling near real-time synchronisation
between POS and e-commerce, and a new ‘Item
Maintenance Wizard’ allowing bulk product updates
and repair management.
Enhanced stock control and inter-store transfer
tracking, with improved alerts and visibility for multistore
operations, is also included, as are a new native
card-processing integration with Zeller and faster,
more responsive SMS and e-marketing tools with
improved compliance features.
Among the other important inclusions are Anti-Money
Laundering (Tranche 2) functionality and reporting
aligned with upcoming AUSTRAC legislation.
“Retail Edge is excited to share upcoming
enhancements to the Edge POS platform in our next
major release, designed to help independent jewellery
retailers stay abreast of AUSTRAC’s Anti-Money
Laundering (AML) Tranche 2 requirements,” van
Megen explained.
“These updates include the ability to detect linked
cash transactions that exceed customisable
thresholds, along with built-in Know Your Customer
(KYC) prompts to support day-to-day compliance.
“We’re also introducing a new AML Compliance
Report, making it easy to track which customers are
verified or unverified across selected date ranges
where thresholds have been exceeded.”
Compliance with AUSTRAC’s new requirements
comes into effect on 1 July 2026.
Retail Edge Consultants is a Gold Coast-based
technology and consulting company specialising in
jeweller-specific software (The Edge) and business
coaching services for retailers across Australia and
New Zealand.
June 2026 | 19

News
Ocean Dream: Record return
for extraordinarily rare
blue-green diamond
Furious bidding swirled around the largest blue-green
fancy colour diamond ever sold at auction last week,
commanding a record price.
Known as the Ocean Dream, it is a triangular-cut,
5.50-carat, fancy-vivid-blue-green type IIa diamond.
It was discovered as an 11.70-carat rough in
Central Africa.
Headlining the latest Christie’s sale in Geneva, the
diamond returned $USD17.4 million ($AUD24.39
million) after 20 minutes of bidding.
The Ocean Dream was acquired by the Cora Diamond
Corporation in New York in the early 1990s, which
commissioned Mazhar Saylam to shape it into a
modified triangular brilliant.
The diamond made its public debut in a Smithsonian
Institution’s National Museum of Natural History
exhibition in 2003, where it was displayed alongside
the Moussaieff Red, the De Beers Millennium Star,
the Pumpkin Diamond, the Blue Heart of Eternity, the
Allnatt Diamond, and the Steinmetz Pink.
In an interview with the Observer, Tom Moses,
Gemological Institute of America executive vice
president, explained the demand for diamonds of
this rarity.
“Blue-green diamonds are extraordinarily rare
because their colour depends on a very specific set of
natural conditions,” Moses explained.
"The radiation most often does not penetrate entirely
through the diamond, which makes the cutting
process especially delicate, as the cutter must
preserve the colour while also balancing shape,
weight and brilliance.”
“The result at Christie’s reflects continued demand
for exceptional natural coloured diamonds. Collectors
at this level are looking for gems with characteristics
and stories that are beautiful and unique.”
In total, the May 13 Magnificent Jewels sale returned
$USD66.5 million ($AUD93.21 million), with more
than 80 per cent of the items sold exceeding their
pre-sale estimates.
Gigantic ruby discovered in war-ravaged Myanmar
An enormous ruby weighing more than 2
kilograms has been discovered in war-torn
Myanmar.
A rough ruby weighing more than 11,000 carats
(2.2 kilograms) was discovered near the town of
Mogok, in the upper Mandalay region, a central
territory in a lucrative gemstone mining industry
that has experienced intense fighting during the
country’s civil war.
The ruby is slightly more than half the size of the
21,450-carat gem discovered in Mogok in 1996,
which is often considered Myanmar's largest.
However, it reportedly has superior colour, lustre,
and transparency.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar
stated that the ruby was discovered during
the post-New Year period of 1388 Myanmar
Era (ME), after the formation of the country's
democratically elected government.
"Gemstones, both legitimately traded and
smuggled, are a major source of revenue for
Myanmar," writes Rudi Maxwell for ABC News.
"Human rights activists and organisations such
as the British-based research and lobbying group
Global Witness have urged jewellers to stop
purchasing gems sourced from Myanmar, as the
industry has served as a vital revenue stream for
A collection of gold jewellery believed to be
more than 3,000 years old has been discovered
in Greece and has been described as being in
remarkable condition.
The discovery, announced by the Greek
Culture Ministry, was found in the ruins of a
stone structure, near the remains of a wall
surrounding the ‘inner suburb’ of the Middle
Bronze Age settlement.
The collection was discovered during 2025
excavations at the archaeological site of Kolona
on the Greek island of Aegina. All 32 items were
found in excellent condition and were thought to
have belonged to a gold necklace or pendant.
Among the treasures recovered are eight gold
bilateral disc-shaped amulets, one gold nonbilateral
disc-shaped amulet, seven golden
its military governments over several decades.
"A new, ostensibly civilian government was
installed this year, but it followed elections
described by human rights and opposition groups
as a sham."
The publication described the stone as purplishred
with yellowish undertones, possessing a
high colour grade, moderate transparency, and
excellent vitreous lustre. It also noted that the
ruby remains in its natural, untreated state.
Myanmar, which supplies 90 per cent of the
world's rubies, has been in civil war since the
2021 military coup. The conflict has resulted in
approximately 90,000 deaths and displaced more
than 3.5 million people.
3,500-year-old gold jewellery unearthed in Greece
biconical beads, one cylindrical gold bead,
eight decorative sheets of gold leaf, and seven
spherical carnelian beads.
According to researchers, the jewellery may
have served as offerings, possibly from a
Middle Bronze Age burial. That said, there is
no evidence of a surviving tomb to support
this theory.
The jewellery bears similarities to pieces from
the Aegina Treasure, a Minoan gold collection
thought to have been found in a tomb on the
island in 1891. The Aegina Treasure has been
dated to the Greek Bronze Age between 1850
and 1550 BCE.
The Kolona excavations were conducted by the
University of Salzburg through the Austrian
Archaeological Institute in Athens.
20 | June 2026

News
Billions at stake for retailers in
Australia's troubling ‘red tape crisis’
Australia risks losing $26 billion over the next decade as inconsistent
state and territory regulations increase costs for retailers.
That’s the message from the Australian Retail Council (ARC), which
has called for tax and regulatory reform, citing $2.6 billion in annual
costs from inconsistent state and territory rules. CEO Chris Rodwell told
SkyNews that industries affected by the oil crisis would benefit from tax
and regulatory reform.
"We have on the table a piece of work around the fragmentation tax,"
he said.
"That is states having different rules for essentially the same area,
whether it's about the environment, transport and logistics. It's going to
come at a cost to the economy of over $26 billion."
Rodwell added that better alignment between federal and state
governments could help address inflation.
"We need the government to step in, do something about fragmentation
tax and get some harmonisation going," he said.
"That will put more downward pressure on prices."
The ARC estimates that addressing regulatory inconsistencies could
enhance retail productivity and deliver significant economic benefits. A
one per cent increase in productivity would raise real GDP by $3.2 billion,
generate $1.3 billion in annual household savings, and create 13,000 new
jobs across the economy.
Retailers encounter challenges with varying state container deposit
schemes, which require duplicate reporting and registration and differ in
accepted item types.
Paul Cooper, chairman of the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre,
advocated for a unified national response to the oil crisis. He referenced
the National Cabinet model used during the pandemic and noted the
failure to apply those lessons.
Small businesses increasingly struggle
to gain traction in New Zealand
A New Zealand business regulator has released its first-ever
assessment of the state of competition across the economy, finding
that while markets have become slightly less dominated by the
largest companies, it is becoming harder for new small businesses to
become established.
The Commerce Commission's baseline research report examined 22
years of business data from 2001 to 2023 and found that economywide
competition trends are mixed, with some measures pointing in
opposite directions.
The report found that business entry and exit rates have declined,
while large companies are better able to maintain their positions. New
entrants are capturing smaller shares and struggling to expand after
entering the market.
Conversely, large businesses now control a slightly smaller share of
the market, indicating improved competition. However, fewer new
businesses are entering to challenge them. Commerce Commission
chair Dr John Small emphasised that these upstream industries are
critical to the New Zealand economy.
This report will serve as a baseline for future monitoring and will be
updated as new data becomes available.
Sapphire Dreams celebrates the extraordinary beauty of
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spectrum and natural brilliance. Ethically sourced and
certified Australian in origin, our sapphires embody the
perfect harmony of luxury and sustainability.
SapphireDreams.com.au
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June 2026 | 21

News
Chaos surrounds global
launch of Swatch x
Audemars Piguet
Good times continue for Watches of Switzerland
The launch of Swatch's latest collection, developed
in collaboration with Audemars Piguet, led to large
crowds, clashes, and police intervention at retail
locations globally.
The release resulted in altercations, arrests, and
temporary store closures as customers competed
for the $USD400 ($AUD559) products. Overcrowding,
pushing, and aggressive behaviour were reported in
Dubai, Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, London, and other
cities, leading to police and security interventions.
Near Paris, police reportedly used tear gas outside
a Swatch store after a crowd of about 300 people
gathered. In New York, police used pepper spray at
Roosevelt Field Mall and made at least one arrest
outside a Swatch store in Manhattan. In Austin, Texas,
three individuals were arrested for trespassing at The
Domain mall after hundreds gathered.
"To ensure the safety of both our customers and our
staff in Swatch stores, we kindly ask you not to rush to
our stores in large numbers to acquire this product,"
the company said in a social media post.
The chaos surrounding the launch of this collection is
reminiscent of the 2022 release of the MoonSwatch,
and critics have suggested that Swatch either failed to
learn from that experience or was willing to recreate
those conditions for media attention.
“The mishandling of the Swatch x Audemars Piguet
Royal Pop launch is inexcusable because it was so
predictable,” writes Rob Corder of WatchPro.
“Swatch knew, having seen the reaction to the first
MoonSwatch in 2022, that this was going to be an
event that drew far bigger crowds than they could
serve in a day, even if they had supplied enough
watches to each store. This was entirely avoidable.”
“Somebody could have been killed. Heads should roll
at Swatch.”
The collection combines Swatch's mass-market
appeal with Audemars Piguet, a leading Swiss luxury
watch brand.
It features eight Pop Art-inspired versions of the Royal
Oak, Audemars Piguet's signature watch line, which
typically starts at $USD15,000 ($AUD20,976).
The company stated that the collection will remain
available in stores for several months; however, it will
be unavailable online.
Watches of Switzerland has reported an increase
in revenue for the financial year amid a surge in
the US market, which now accounts for over half
of the company’s sales.
The company reported an 11 per cent increase in
sales, reaching £1.83 billion ($AUD3.44 billion) for
the period ending 3 May.
Watches of Switzerland operates more than
190 stores worldwide and is a major retailer
of brands such as Rolex, Omega, Cartier, TAG
Heuer, and Breitling.
Revenue in the US market increased by 18 per
cent. CEO Brian Duffy highlighted the success of
the company’s strategy in the US market.
Richemont has reported a significant increase
in sales across its jewellery brands over the past
financial year, countering a decline in revenue
from watch brands.
Revenue among jewellery brands, including
Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Buccellati,
reached €16.54 billion ($AUD26.84 billion) for the
year ended 31 March.
“The US continues to be the primary engine of
growth, now accounting for over half of group
sales,” Duffy said.
“This is a major milestone in the world’s largest
and fastest-growing luxury watch market,
achieved in just eight years from entering the US.
"In the UK, performance has improved
despite the challenging macroeconomic
backdrop, with resilient demand for luxury
watches and jewellery.”
The company recently acquired a stake in Texas
retailer Deutsch & Deutsch and forecasted a
revenue increase of between 5 and 10 per cent
over the coming year.
Richemont reports strong jewellery revenue,
dismisses brand sale speculation
Addressing the impact of conflict in the Middle
East and other adverse economic factors,
Richemont chair Johann Rupert told reporters
that market disruption was nothing new.
“Our cash flow this year was dramatically up. And
we’re relatively relaxed about the next 18 to 24
months,” he said.
“I think we’re going to have to start thinking of
the turbulence in the world as the new norm. We
just lay low, try to be conservative, and have a
clean balance sheet.”
Rupert also dismissed speculation that
Richemont was considering selling its Jaeger-
LeCoultre brand following an agreement
to sell its Baume & Mercier brand to Italy's
Damiani Group.
"There is no way it could ever have been
contemplated. Don't believe it," Rupert said.
Meanwhile, sales among watch brands, including
A. Lange & Söhne, Piaget, and Vacheron
Constantin, declined by 4 per cent to €3.14 billion
($AUD5.10 billion).
Group sales for the full year increased by 5 per
cent to €22.42 billion ($AUD36.41 billion), while
profit increased by 27 per cent.
22 | June 2026

News
LVMH Australia increases dividend
despite sales decline
The Australian branch of luxury juggernaut Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy
(LVMH) has increased the dividend payment to its parent company by
more than a fifth.
As reported by the Australian Financial Review, the company recorded a
3.7 per cent increase in profit in the past financial year, despite a slight
decline in revenue.
LVMH employs more than 400 people across 13 retail stores in Australia
and paid a $137 million dividend in 2025, a significant increase from $113
million in 2024. The report also noted that the company paid $40 million in
taxes in Australia.
“The Australian Taxation Office has stepped up its scrutiny of foreignbased
companies in recent years, picking fights with multinationals
including Coca-Cola, Alcoa, Chevron and a host of US tech giants, over
their tax payments,” writes Simon Evans.
He added: “The trend indicates even high-income earners are feeling
the pinch from cost-of-living pressures, with surging fuel prices
brought on by the Middle East conflict stoking inflationary pressures
across the economy.”
LVMH oversees the operations of more than 70 brands, including Tiffany
& Co., Bulgari, Kering, and TAG Heuer and attributed the recent decline in
revenue to the impact of global conflict and economic pressures.
Impulse buying persists even as
household budgets tighten
An interesting study has found that consumer purchasing patterns
remain somewhat contradictory, with impulse buying increasing despite
high cost-of-living pressures.
A recent PartnerCentric survey, conducted in the US, found that 81
per cent of consumers made an impulse purchase in the past year.
The survey included more than 1,000 participants across all age
demographics.
These figures came despite 53 per cent of shoppers expecting tighter
budgets in 2026, with 41 per cent of participants admitting to buying
non-essential items every week.
While self-explanatory, speed was identified as a key factor in these
purchases. Seventy-seven per cent of consumers buy within a week of
starting research, while 15 per cent purchase on the same day. Sixty-two
per cent of respondents express remorse over impulse purchases, and
34 per cent report financial stress as a result.
Meanwhile, twenty-two per cent of consumers have purchased
directly through social media. Of these transactions, 43 per cent
occur on TikTok, 27 per cent on Instagram, and 15 per cent on
Facebook Marketplace.
Closer to home, the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence declined
3.1 points to 64.1 – the fourth lowest in history. Over the next year, just 4
per cent of Australians anticipate 'good times' for the economy, while 48
per cent expect ‘bad times’.
The report found that just 14 per cent of Australians say their families
are ‘better off’ financially than this time last year, compared to a majority
of 56 per cent that say their families are ‘worse off’.
An analysis by state shows consumer confidence declined in New South
Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, but increased slightly
in Western Australia.
Australia’s Longest
Operating Watch Brand
ClassiqueWatches.com
Become a stockist today
02 9290 2199
June 2026 | 23

UPCOMING EVENTS
2026 Calendar
Events Not to Miss
18 JUN
–
21 JUN
JUNE
06
AUGUST
08
30 AUG – 01 SEPT
Centurion Scottsdale
The Breakers Palm Beach
PALM BEACH, USA
centurionjewelry.com
CHINA
Jewellery & Gem ASIA
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Convention &
Exhibition Centre
HONG KONG, CHINA
jga.exhibitions.jewellerynet.com
AUSTRALIA
International Jewellery Fair
ICC Sydney Darling Harbour
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
jewelleryfair.com.au/ijf
22 AUG
–
24 AUG
18 JUN
–
21 JUN
Jewellery & Gem ASIA
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Convention &
Exhibition Centre
HONG KONG, CHINA
jga.exhibitions.jewellerynet.com
26 JUN – 29 JUN
Nanjing Baimu International
Jewelry Exhibition
Nanjing International Exhibition Center
NANJING, CHINA
njzbexpo.com
27 JUN
–
30 JUN
14 AUG – 16 AUG
Seoul International Jewelry &
Accessories Show
COEX
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
en-themostshow.imweb.me
20 AUG – 23 AUG
India International Fashion
Jewellery & Accessories Show
Bombay Exhibition Centre
MUMBAI, INDIA
iifjs.com
20 AUG – 23 AUG
Penang Signature Gold,
Gems & Jewellery Fair
Setia Spice Convention Centre
PENANG, MALAYSIA
psg.elite.com.my
22 AUG
–
24 AUG
09
SEPTEMBER
01 SEPT
–
05 SEPT
HKTDC Hong Kong Watch
& Clock Fair
Hong Kong Convention &
Exhibition Centre
HONG KONG, CHINA
hkwatchfair.hktdc.com
02 SEPT – 03 SEPT
The Jewellery Show
Olympia
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
thejewelleryshow.co.uk
26 AUG
–
28 AUG
03 SEPT
–
06 SEPT
International Jewellery Fair
Malaysia International
Jewellery Fair
ICC Sydney Darling Harbour
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
jewelleryfair.com.au/ijf
JAPAN
Japan Jewellery Fair
Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center
TOKYO, JAPAN
japanjewelleryfair.com/en
03 SEPT
–
06 SEPT
Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA
mijf.com.my
JULY
07
26 AUG
–
28 AUG
JOGS Tucson Fall Gem
& Jewelry Show
Tucson Expo Center
TUCSON, USA
jogsshow.com
USA
JOGS Tucson Fall Gem
& Jewelry Show
Tucson Expo Center
TUCSON, USA
jogsshow.com
24 | June 2026
09 JUL – 12 JUL
Singapore International
Jewelry Expo
Sands Expo and Convention Centre
SINGAPORE
sije.com.sg
12 JUL – 15 JUL
World Diamond Congress
Marina Bay Sands Expo and
Convention Centre
SINGAPORE
wfdb.com
Japan Jewellery Fair
Tokyo Big Sight Exhibition Center
TOKYO, JAPAN
japanjewelleryfair.com/en
28 AUG – 30 AUG
Inova Collection
Messecenter Hofheim Rhein-Main
HOFHEIM, GERMANY
inova-collection.de/?lang=en
04 SEPT – 08 SEPT
Vicenzaoro
Fiera di Vicenza
VICENZA, ITALY
vicenzaoro.com
04 SEPT – 08 SEPT
CIBJO Congress
Fiera di Vicenza
VICENZA, ITALY
cibjo.org

International
Jewellery Fair
Uniting the World
of Jewellery
August 22 – 24, 2026 • ICC Sydney Darling Harbour
For more than 35 years, the International Jewellery Fair has been the essential Australian trade event for
jewellery and timepiece professionals to connect, source products, discover trends, and build profitable
business relationships. Designed for the industry to buy smarter, stay competitive, and drive sales.
Organised by
Diamond
Sponsor
Lanyard
Sponsor
Discover more at www.jewelleryfair.com.au/ijf
REGISTER
NOW!
Proudly supported by
June 2026 | 25

10 Years Ago
Time Machine: June 2016
A snapshot of the industry events making headlines this time 10 years ago in Jeweller.
Historic Headlines
June 2016
ON THE COVER
COEUR DE LION
Editor’s Desk
Turn your pesky jewellery returns
into rewards
Product returns are never fun for
retailers so wouldn’t it be nice to learn
how capitalise upon them or even avoid
returns from happening in the first
place? Everyone knows consumers
love a brand story but how can retailers
convey a cohesive message for the
store’s overall brand as well as the
branded jewellery ranges that they
carry?
Our July issue – which has now been
mailed – seeks to answer this question.
It also explores the current techniques
branded jewellery suppliers are using
to ensure retailers benefit from brand
awareness and consumer loyalty.
Jeweller praised for response during armed attack
Diamond sector gains first campaign since De Beers
Design competition raises Aussie pearls profile
Calls for more transparency at World Diamond Congress
Michael Hill restructures for ASX transfer
Jewellers to be hit by wage rise
The recently announced minimum wage rise for
retail will adversely affect jewellers, according
to two industry groups.
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and
the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) have
shared concerns about the Fair Work Commission
awarding a $15.80 a week increase in the national
minimum wage.
From 1 July, the pay rate for retail assistants will
increase to $19.44 per hour or $738.80 per week –
an extra $17.30 per week.
ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman
said the ARA advocated for a “realistic” and
“manageable” increase of no more than $7.90 per
week for the retail sector.
Zimmerman called the rise “unmanageable” for
retailers nationally, including jewellers, and stated
he feared the decision would mean many small
and medium business owners would struggle to
pay existing staff and take on new employees.
STILL RELEVANT 10 YEARS ON
"Handover and delivery are two forgotten
details in retail that cause customers to
rave about a business. This helps to market
stores and service levels so use this advice
to ensure your staff finish their sales
properly."
Time Essentials placed in
administration
Local watch supplier Time Essentials has
entered administration, with trading reportedly
suspended until further notice.
The Melbourne-based business, known for
distributing watch brands including Bulova and
Jag in Australia and New Zealand, appointed
administrators Fabian Kane Micheletto and
Michael Carrafa from insolvency accounting
specialist SV Partners on 20 June.
An email obtained by Jeweller on 22 June
stated Time Essentials had been placed in
voluntary administration and that trading was
suspended while administrators undertook an
“urgent assessment” of its business operations,
contractual obligations and financial position.
A SV Partners spokesperson confirmed it was
in charge of the process and that a creditor’s
meeting was scheduled for 11am on 30 June at its
premises in Melbourne. They declined to provide
further information.
READ ALL HEADLINES IN FULL ON
JEWELLERMAGAZINE.COM
Soapbox
We need to go big or go home
What if we could impart that upon the
world? Could we save our industry from
the shame of becoming retailers solely
focused on sales? Possibly, and all in just
eight to 12 weeks – just one season!
We could share our creativity and
diversity and tell the big guys we are
still here. With our calloused fingertips,
buffing compound smeared across our
faces and holes burned in our pants, the
independents are here to fight.
We stand proud of this industry and the
quality we provide. I don’t think there’s
anything wrong with thinking big.
Brendan Cunningham
Cunningham Jewellers
Change at the top for De Beers
The head of the De Beers Group is stepping down
after five years in charge and just weeks after
signing a record sales agreement.
Philippe Mellier will be replaced as CEO of the
global diamond company by Bruce Cleaver
who last year was appointed group director of
strategy and business development at De Beers’
parent company Anglo American.
The change comes six months after Rapaport
Group chairman Martin Rapaport called on
Mellier to resign in an editorial piece titled
Rough Bubble Bust. As previously reported
by Jeweller, Rapaport argued rough diamond
prices had been manipulated to artificially
high and unsustainable levels and blamed De
Beers for the “collapse” of the rough diamond
distribution system.
Returning jewellery fair contest
takes centre stage
Applications are open for a jewellery
manufacturing competition that promises to
test a local jeweller’s ability to cope under
pressure.
The 2016 Jewellery Design and Manufacturing
Championships (JDMC) is an initiative organised by
the Young Jewellers Group (YJG), with the support
of International Jewellery Fair (IJF) organiser
Expertise Events.
The competition, now in its second year, is said
to provide Australian and New Zealand jewellers
with the chance to showcase their manufacturing
skills while competing against fellow industry
participants.
26 | June 2026

23rd
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ADVANCED COURSES
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ONLINE COURSES
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28 | June 2026
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www.gem.org.au

REVIEW
Gems
South Australia: A diverse landscape yet to be fully understood
South Australia has a varied geology, which has
provided a favourable environment for many
different types of minerals and gems.
South Australia is well known for its opal
deposits; however, it also has a plethora
of other minerals and gems.
Opal is probably the most famous of South
Australia’s gems. Having been declared both
Australia’s National and South Australia’s
State gemstone.
The opal formed as the Great Artesian Basin dried;
the sediments weathered from sandstone and
shale to kaolin clay. Soluble silica percolated down
into the ground, eventually reaching impermeable
clay layers, where the silica spheres hardened into
opal seams.
South Australia has a famous association with opal mining. Opal mined today is believed to have settled between 15 and 20 million years ago.
Most opal is believed to have settled between 15
and 20 million years ago. Of course, there have been
distinct differences in the timing and emplacement
of the various opal fields.
The Andamooka field, discovered in 1930, is currently
in operation and produces crystal opal, white opal,
some black opal, and ‘Painted Lady’ (coating opal
along surfaces). Mining occurs predominantly on one
horizon, locally known as “the level”.
At the Coober Pedy field, discovered in 1915, most
opal is mined in a sandstone layer in sub-horizontal
to sub-vertical veins. Due to its location in the
Artesian Basin, it is not uncommon to find fossilised
shells or opal that has infilled spaces left by shells.
A few examples of opal-fossilised plesiosaurs and
ichthyosaurs have been found.
The main type of opal found is light opaque to
translucent opal, as well as some crystal.
At the Mintabie field, which was discovered in
1929, the town has closed, and the mine has been
decommissioned, although mining is still possible
with appropriate permits. As Mintabie is on APY
Lands (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara), access
permits are also required.
Opal types include black opal, transparent crystal,
and white opal, which often exhibit distinct darker
and lighter bands.
Although not known for its diamonds, South
Australia has produced more than 100 macro and
micro diamonds over the years, as well as indicator
minerals. Both kimberlite and lamprophyre
occurrences are found within the state. Three
locations in particular have been considered highly
prospective for diamond exploration.
Historically, diamonds were found by gold panners
between 1859 and 1900 at Echunga. Interestingly,
only one diamond has been found since.
Diamonds were also found in the mid-1980s in the
Springfield Basin, along with garnets, indicating that
the source is close.
Eurelia is another area where diamonds have been
found. Microdiamonds were found associated
with kimberlite dykes. To date, these are the only
diamonds recovered from source rocks. Exploration
continues in South Australia to try to locate the
source of the diamonds.
Nephrite jade deposits were discovered in Cowell
on the Eyre Peninsula in 1965. This is one of the
biggest nephrite jade deposits in the world, and to
date, more than 100 outcrops have been discovered
in the area.
South Australia is renowned for its connection with opal;
however, did you know that diamonds have been found in
the region too?
There are three main varieties found there: green
nephrite, black nephrite and premium black
nephrite. They are all of fine grain and take on a
high polish.
Chrysoprase was mined at Mt Davies, the northwest
corner of South Australia. Historically,
mining took place in the early 1960’s and has
occurred intermittently since. The extent of the
deposit is unknown; however, the area has now
been backfilled and rehabilitated.
Kangaroo Island, situated 13kilometres from the
mainland of South Australia, is technically part of
the Adelaide geosyncline, separated by a body of
water known as the Backstairs Passage.
Even though the island is geologically similar to
the mainland, there are stark differences that are
yet to be fully understood. For example, Kangaroo
Island has an abundance of tourmaline that is not
commonly found on the mainland. Furthermore,
Trilobite fossils have also been found in
abundance on Kangaroo Island, but not in the
same sequence on the mainland. One theory
posed is that metamorphism has destroyed the
fossils and tourmaline on the mainland.
Finally, while beryl, corundum, garnet and zircon
deposits have also been discovered in South
Australia, to date these have mainly been mined
for industrial uses.
Tanya Cerny FGAA, DipDT is the GAA’s South
Australia Education Support Officer and has
worked as a geologist throughout Queensland
and Western Australia. For more information on
jewellery and gemstones, visit www.gem.org.au
June 2026 | 29

CASTING & REFINING
Rinse & Repeat
From Crucible to Creation
Becks
Gold was being cast, refined, and worn thousands of years
before history was even written. SAMUEL ORD explores
how the game hasn’t changed as much as you’d think.
30 | June 2026

RINSE & REPEAT | CASTING & REFINING
F
or most jewellery retailers, the
daily rhythm of business revolves
around what we might consider
‘contemporary concerns’. Humming
beneath the surface of that modern
machinery, both literal and conceptual,
lies something remarkably ancient.
Indeed, day-to-day, most jewellers might find
themselves thinking about fluctuating precious
metal prices, jewellery trends, the impact of labcreated
diamonds on the market, and stresses
about staffing and marketing – that kind of thing.
With that said, beyond jewellers, few retailers
can claim a direct connection to the earliest
chapters of human civilisation. Fewer still
can claim to practice techniques that, despite
today, involve advanced technology, may even be
innately recognisable to people who lived as long
as 5,000 years ago.
Casting and refining remain foundational
processes at the very heart of jewellery
manufacturing, despite being among humanity’s
oldest technological achievements.
While today’s workshops rely heavily on
computers, software, and precision equipment
to function, the principles remain very much the
same. Melt, shape, purify, and repeat.
For jewellery retailers, this continuity represents
more than just mere manufacturing history. It’s
something that makes jewellery distinct from a
long line of other consumer categories.
So many areas of manufacturing and retail –
whether it be electronics, furniture, clothing,
or homewares – have evolved rapidly over time,
becoming increasingly disposable and less
connected to their origins.
While shades of this may be applicable to this
trade, the same cannot be said for jewellery as
a whole. And underpinning all of it are traditions
that can be traced back to the earliest moments of
human history.
Using the lost-wax casting method, these Hellenic gold
armbands were made around 200 BCE. The serpentine
armbands depict paired tritons cradling winged Eros
figures and were so heavy that they required stitching
directly to garments. | Source: The Met
A relief from the tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara, c. 2300 BCE, documents goldsmithing in extraordinary detail. Across its registers,
scribes weigh metal, craftsmen work blowpipes over charcoal furnaces, and molten gold is cast and beaten into sheet. Finished
ornaments fill the centre of the relief, while the lower register shows workmen crafting elaborate jewellery — evidence of a highly
organised and specialised trade thousands of years in the making. | Source: T. G. H. James, The British Museum
The First Jewellers
Long before humans learned to work metal,
they adorned themselves with shells, bone,
teeth, beads, and carved stone. Archaeological
discoveries suggest humans were creating
personal ornaments at least 100,000 years ago.
Researchers suggest that these crude
adornments were used to communicate identity,
status, spirituality, and belonging – just as
jewellery is today. Jewellery, in other words,
existed before civilisation itself. Ahiad Ovadia
of Israel University explained the phenomenon
rather poetically in an interview with the
Jerusalem Post.
It’s something that makes
jewellery distinct from a long line
of other consumer categories.
“Something in our human mind is attracted
to those smooth round objects like shells and
stones,” said Ovadia.
“It is not by coincidence that the first ornaments
were made from shells. Every kid collects those
shells and brings them home to play with. It is
really amazing to see this through human history.
“Jewellery is saying something about yourself;
you are extending yourself so people can see.
It is amazing to see that that already started
to happen 120,000 years ago. This indicates
self-awareness, which is a big leap forward
in the cognitive ability of humans to identify
themselves as unique individuals within a group.
“As far as we know, this is an attribute unique
to humans.”
The introduction of what we today consider
precious metals transformed this early
landscape. Gold became especially important
because, unlike iron or copper ores, it could
often be found in nature in metallic form.
Early humans did not initially need complex
smelting technologies to use it; native gold
could be hammered, shaped, and polished
using relatively simple tools.
Some of the oldest known gold artefacts,
including those discovered at the Varna
Necropolis in modern-day Bulgaria and
dated to around 4600–4200 BCE, reveal that
goldsmithing had already become highly
sophisticated more than six millennia ago.
Even at this early stage, jewellery is believed
to have carried immense social significance.
Gold objects were associated with power, ritual,
prestige, and wealth. In many respects, that
relationship remains unchanged today.
For modern jewellery retailers, there is
something striking about this continuity. A
contemporary customer purchasing a gold
bangle, signet ring, or pendant may be engaging
in behaviours fundamentally similar to those
of ancient civilisations separated from us by
thousands of years.
One discovery changes everything
One of the most important technological
breakthroughs in jewellery history was the
development of lost-wax casting, also known
in French as cire perdue.
Archaeological evidence suggests versions
of the process were being used as early as
3700 BCE in the Middle East. The method
was revolutionary because it allowed
craftspeople to create intricate metal objects
with previously impossible detail and, perhaps
more importantly, consistency.
June 2026 | 31

CASTING & REFINING | RINSE & REPEAT
The process itself is elegantly simple.
An object is first sculpted in wax. The wax model
is then encased in clay or investment material.
When heated, the wax melts away, leaving a
cavity into which molten metal can be poured.
Once cooled, the mould is broken apart to reveal
the finished object.
“If jewellery is a form of expression, then
lost wax casting is the language behind
that expression. It allows imagination,
belief, memory, identity, and emotion to be
solidified into metal forms that can be worn,
treasured, and passed down,” a report from
FlashForge explains.
“Lost wax casting was not ‘invented’ by any
single civilisation. Instead, it appeared almost
simultaneously across different cultures.
“This tells us something profound: Before
humans mastered systematic metalworking,
they had already understood that wax can be
shaped, fire can transform it, and metal can
remember it.
“From that moment onward, humanity gained the
ability to preserve life and thought in lasting form.”
Modern jewellery casting still follows this same
essential process. Of course, today’s casting and
refining environments use far more advanced
equipment, backed by a rigorous scientific
understanding; however, the principles remain
the same.
It could even be argued that an ancient
goldsmith, transported into a workshop today,
might, to some degree, even understand what is
unfolding. That continuity is extraordinary.
So many industries bear little resemblance to
their historical origins.
MORRIS & WATSON
Jewellery, by contrast, continues to rely on
processes developed thousands of years ago
because they remain highly effective.
Casting enabled ancient artisans to produce
more complex rings, amulets, pendants,
and ceremonial objects than ever before.
It positioned jewellery at the centre of many
cultures. It also helped establish jewellery
manufacturing as a specialised trade.
As civilisations expanded across Mesopotamia,
Egypt, the Indus Valley, Greece, Rome, and later
Asia and Africa, casting techniques evolved
alongside them. Jewellery became increasingly
sophisticated, both technically and artistically.
It could even be argued that an
ancient goldsmith, transported
into a workshop today, might, to
some degree, even understand
what is unfolding.
Importantly, these advancements were not
isolated developments. They travelled through
trade routes, conquests, migration, and
cultural exchange.
In many ways, jewellery manufacturing might
be considered among the earliest examples of
global technological transfer.
Refining: The Invisible Backbone
In many cases, it seems likely that the challenge
facing early metalworkers was consistency.
Naturally occurring gold and silver often
contained impurities or varying compositions.
Lost-wax cast in solid gold
around 945 BCE, this rare
Egyptian statuette of Amun
embodies a civilisation’s
devotion — proof that this
method of casting was
already producing objects of
breathtaking spiritual and artistic
mastery. | Source: The Met
To create dependable jewellery alloys and
facilitate trade, metals needed to be purified.
Ancient Egyptians are believed to have
pioneered some of the earliest refining
techniques around 3000 BCE, using methods
such as salt cementation and fire refining to
separate gold from other metals.
This was a transformative development. Refining
allowed craftspeople to exert greater control
over factors such as purity, colour, hardness,
and workability. It enabled the standardisation
of value and laid the foundations for systems of
trade, taxation, and wealth storage.
In essence, refining turned precious metals into
reliable commercial commodities. For today’s
jewellery retailers, refining often remains
somewhat invisible compared with diamonds,
colour gemstones, branding, or design. Yet it
continues to underpin the entire industry.
Every manufacturing workshop generates scrap.
Every bench produces filings, polishing dust,
offcuts, sweeps, and unused alloy. Every repair
job contributes recoverable material.
The modern refining industry transforms this
waste back into usable precious metal. This
circularity is one of the jewellery industry’s defining
characteristics. Unlike many retail sectors,
jewellery materials are rarely truly discarded.
Indeed, gold mined thousands of years ago may
have taken countless forms. At one stage, it may
have been coins, ceremonial objects, antique
jewellery, bullion, or wedding bands.
Eventually, it will be refined and return to the
market once more.
This, among other factors, is why the
term ‘recycled gold’ is an increasingly
contentious matter in the jewellery industry.
Recycling innately involves waste, and gold
is never wasted.
32 | June 2026

Precision.
Care.
Trust.
BECKS
It has always been valuable, a point succinctly made by
Assheton Carter, CEO of TDi Sustainability and The Impact
Facility, in a recent interview with the New York Times.
“There are two sources of gold,” he explained.
“There’s freshly mined gold, and then there’s recycled gold.
But the important thing to note is that no gold is wasted.
No one in their right mind is going to throw gold away. So
recycled gold isn’t really any better.
“It’s not like getting recycled paper where
the rest goes into the landfill. It’s just gold,
and gold just goes round and round.”
Indeed, compared with jewellery, very few consumer
products can claim such permanence.
Ancient Craft, Modern Technology
Throughout history, advances in jewellery manufacturing
have mirrored broader advances in science, engineering,
and industrial capability.
The Greeks and Romans refined alloying techniques
and organised workshop production. Medieval European
goldsmiths documented casting methods and established
hallmarking systems. Renaissance artisans elevated
jewellery manufacturing into an art form.
Naturally, industrialisation changed everything. The
nineteenth century introduced mechanised production,
precision tooling, and eventually electrolytic refining, which
dramatically improved precious metal purity standards.
The twentieth century accelerated this evolution further.
Technologies developed during wartime manufacturing,
particularly investment casting techniques used for
industrial components, eventually found their way into
jewellery production.
Today, digital technologies have transformed the workflow
yet again. Jewellery retailers increasingly operate within a
manufacturing ecosystem built around CAD design and 3D
printing, all of which are supported by advanced alloy science.
Despite all of this innovation, the industry’s core principles
remain ancient.
Family-owned. Australian.
Supporting the jewellery trade for
40 years.
DESIGN | 3D PRINTING | CASTING
REFINING | METALS
June 2026 | 33

VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY APRIL 2025
Next Generation Pink of Perfection Guessing Game
FIGHTING FOR THE FUTURE OF THE
THE PINK DIAMOND LEGEND
MAKING THE MOST OF CRITICAL
AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY
CONTINUES TO EXPAND
DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES
CASTING & REFINING | RINSE & REPEAT
VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY
Deep Sea Treasure Uniquely Australian He
A MOMENT FOR PEARLS IN THE
THE POWERFUL APPEAL OF
TH
INTERNATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
HOMEGROWN JEWELLERY
THE PERTH MINT
CHEMGOLD
That duality is part of what makes jewellery
unique. Few industries combine cutting-edge
technology with traditions that stretch back to
the dawn of civilisation.
For independent jewellers and retail businesses,
this history is more than an interesting narrative.
It is a powerful point of differentiation.
Modern retail is increasingly dominated
by disposability. Fast fashion, consumer
electronics, and trend-driven products are
often designed for replacement rather than
permanence.
Jewellery can and does operate differently.
Customers do not simply purchase
jewellery because they need an object. They
purchase meaning.
MORRIS & WATSON
Engagement rings commemorate commitment.
Wedding bands symbolise continuity. Heirloom
pieces preserve family memory. Anniversary gifts
mark milestones. Religious jewellery carries
spiritual significance. Custom pieces celebrate
identity and personal history.
The emotional durability of jewellery mirrors
the physical durability of precious metals
themselves. This is where the stories of casting
and refining become commercially relevant.
The ancient goldsmith and the
modern jeweller are separated
by millennia, yet connected
through the same enduring
materials and motivations.
When retailers speak about craftsmanship,
heritage, or tradition, they are not engaging
in marketing hyperbole. They are referring to
an unbroken lineage of human behaviour and
technical practice spanning thousands of years.
A gold ring sold today exists within a continuum
that stretches back to the earliest metalworkers
of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. That
perspective carries weight in an era dominated
by synthetic experiences and short cycles.
Historically, precious metals were almost
always recycled. Ancient coins were melted
down into jewellery. Broken ornaments became
new objects. Scrap was continually refined and
reused. In many respects, the industry has
always operated as a circular system.
Today’s refiners perform this role on a
vastly more sophisticated scale, recovering
valuable metals from manufacturing waste,
obsolete jewellery, industrial products, and
secondary sources.
The point remains the same: Unlike disposable
goods, jewellery is designed to survive
generations.
Continuing the Tradition
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of casting
and refining is not how much they have changed,
but how much they have endured.
The tools may look different. Workshops may
rely on electricity and computers to function;
however, the essential act remains the same.
Metal is heated, transformed, purified, shaped,
and passed forward.
That continuity gives the jewellery industry a
rare cultural depth. Retail jewellers are not
simply selling products; they are participating
in one of humanity’s oldest creative and
commercial traditions.
Few retailers can genuinely claim that their
industry has remained culturally relevant for
more than 5,000 years. Jewellery can! And
perhaps that is why jewellery continues to hold
such a unique place in retail.
While trends evolve and technologies change,
the human desire to mark identity, celebrate
milestones, display status, express love, and
preserve memory remains fundamentally
constant.
The ancient goldsmith and the modern jeweller
are separated by millennia, yet connected
through the same enduring materials and
motivations. Casting and refining are more than
manufacturing processes. They are reminders
that the jewellery industry occupies a rare
position at the intersection of history, technology,
emotion, and commerce.
For retailers navigating a rapidly changing
market, that may be one of the industry’s
greatest strengths.
34 | June 2026

C
E
L
E
3
S
0
R
A
E
Y
VOICE OF THE AUSTRALIAN JEWELLERY INDUSTRY
Glamour Galore Timely Trends
REVIEW THE LATEST PRODUCTS
WHAT'S HOT AND WHAT'S NOT
AHEAD OF THE GOLD COAST SHOW
IN THE WORLD OF WATCHES
The Ring Gallery
FORGING FOREVER RELATIONSHIPS
WITH RINGS OF DISTINCTION
Stuller.com
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June 2026 | 35

INDUSTRY HIJACKED
Marketing At The Edge
CUT
COLOUR
CLARITY
CARAT
CARBON
Pandora is the world’s largest jewellery brand.
Could it also be the world’s most arrogant?
SAMUEL ORD dives deeper into the implications.
W
hat led CEO Berta de Pablos-
Barbier to think it was wise
for Pandora to promote
new ‘standards’ for the international
jewellery industry?
Even if the announcement was shielded by the
pretence of being a publicity stunt, who gave
Pandora the right to rewrite the rules?
Independent industry standards and structured
nomenclature are designed to keep companies
like Pandora honest. Accepted methods and
best practices are created to hold people and
companies to account. They are not intended for
commercial benefit or corporate gain; however,
that is exactly what Pandora has attempted to do.
The Danish jewellery behemoth has declared
that the world-renowned standard for diamond
grading – the legendary ‘4Cs’ – is apparently no
longer acceptable to Pandora. It has announced
its own expanded set of standards, claiming it is
in the best interests of consumers.
Not only does this strategy demean the long-held
standards of the international jewellery industry,
but it also flies in the face of ethical business
practices. One must ask: If Pablos-Barbier is
happy to create and promote Pandora’s own
international standard for man-made diamonds,
what’s next?
Will she determine that international accounting
standards are no longer applicable to Pandora
and move to change them?
And what if Pandora believes the reporting
standards of the NASDAQ Copenhagen stock
exchange no longer benefit the company? Will
she create her own standard?
If the answer to those questions is ‘no’, then one
must ask why Pandora’s management believes
that it should be able to change diamond grading
standards in the jewellery industry.
The 4Cs are not a marketing blurb to be played
with at whim. They were not designed to be
altered and used by one company for its own
advantage, just as we would not expect any
company to alter accounting and financial
reporting standards for its own benefit.
Standards matter because they create a
common language among suppliers, retailers,
and consumers and build trust. Once individual
companies begin modifying that language for
commercial gain, consistency deteriorates, and
consumer confidence declines.
There’s just one problem:
Who told Pandora it
could change the 4Cs?
Remarkably, this is only the tip of the iceberg, as
the issues extend even further.
This matter is made even worse because Pandora
has promoted changes to a set of international
standards that arguably no longer even apply to
its own products!
Perhaps now, you are starting to understand why
‘arrogance’ is a fitting term to describe Pandora’s
latest strategy.
Pandora & Platitudes
In early May, Pandora announced it would
promote its lab-created diamond jewellery
products by emphasising their ‘environmentally
friendly’ nature, particularly in comparison with
natural diamond products.
To that end, Pablos-Barbier announced that
Pandora would be “adding carbon footprint to the
diamond conversation” and providing consumers
with an “extra point of comparison and essential
insight into the climate impact of their desired
diamond jewellery.”
How does Pandora intend to achieve these lofty
goals? Allow the company to explain:
“For decades, diamonds have been graded by the
traditional 4Cs: Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat.
Now Pandora is adding the 5th C, declaring the
carbon footprint of every Pandora Lab-Grown
Diamond as part of the product information
on pandora.net alongside the traditional four
grading criteria.”
The newly appointed CEO, Berta de Pablos-
Barbier, who replaced Alexander Lacik at the
head of the company in January, was happy to
explain further.
“We believe the future is about making diamonds
more accessible while giving customers clarity
on what they’re buying. We craft our jewellery
with sustainability in mind and by introducing the
5th C, we’re empowering consumers to make
informed choices,” she said.
The company claims that it is “adding a 5th C” in
response to increasing consumer expectations
for sustainability, and even magnanimously
suggested it would share its methodology and
findings with other “jewellery makers” to inspire
greater transparency.
There’s just one problem: Who told Pandora it
could change the 4Cs?
Just as Pandora has no right to alter its
accounting standards or financial reporting
requirements, it should not think it can do so
in the jewellery industry. So, why isn’t Pandora
treating the diamond industry’s long-running
standards with similar respect?
To act with such disdain can aptly be described as
arrogant and conceited.
36 | June 2026

Not a marketing slogan
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
originated and institutionalised the 4Cs
framework. The GIA developed the modern
grading methodology in the 1940s and
spent decades educating both the trade
and consumers.
In practical terms, the GIA created the language
of modern diamond retailing. The 4Cs are
the global standard in the diamond business.
As the GIA itself explains, they transformed
the way diamond quality is determined and
communicated, forever changing how diamonds
are evaluated, bought and sold.
The GIA website explains:
“The 4Cs are for everyone. This framework is
both a way to better understand your diamond,
and to ensure accuracy in the evaluation of your
diamond’s unique characteristics.”
“It is the best way to ensure clear information,
uniform practices, scientific grading and
transparent evaluation in the global diamond
industry. The 4Cs are one of GIA’s many
innovative contributions and one we are
incredibly proud of because of how many
consumers it continues to help.”
The importance of that history cannot be
overstated. While the GIA does not claim
dominion over the 4Cs, this doesn’t mean
that Pandora has the authority to change or
hijack them.
And let’s be clear: Pandora may not have altered
the original wording, definitions, or application of
the 4Cs; however, the addition of a so-called ‘fifth
C’ is nonetheless a change.
The 4Cs were not created by a marketing
department searching for a slogan. They
emerged from decades of gemmological
research, educational investment, and industry
standardisation designed to establish consistency,
objectivity, and trust in diamond trading.
More importantly, that framework became
globally recognised precisely because it
was independent of any single retailer’s
commercial interests.
While the 4Cs are not perfect, they at least
symbolically represent a set of ‘rules’ that
everyone can play by.
Pandora & Puffery
It’s possible that Pablos-Barbier will claim that
Pandora’s 5Cs announcement is nothing more
than marketing “puffery” and also note that it
isn’t forcing any other business to use the newly
minted ‘5Cs’.
In legal terms, puffery generally refers to
promotional language that makes exaggerated
or subjective claims rather than objectively
measurable statements.
With that said, given the company’s global
influence as the world’s largest jewellery brand,
questions must be asked about the potential
disruption this marketing stunt may cause to the
broader trade.
Indeed, there is a world of difference between
a company’s attempt at marketing puffery in
the form of defensible promotional language,
compared to the wanton appropriation and
disfigurement of the terminology of a globally
recognised industry standard.
They are not the same, and Pandora has done
the latter to advance a commercial narrative -
namely, to sell more jewellery. The 4Cs are not for
Pandora to play with, change, or deviate from.
They are, figuratively speaking, the ‘collective
property’ of the jewellery industry.
By invoking the language of the 4Cs, Pandora
gains instant cultural legitimacy because
consumers already associate this terminology
with expertise, scientific grading, and trust.
The company is effectively piggybacking
on decades of educational investment
by the traditional diamond industry and
gemmological institutions.
Pandora’s claim to be adding a ‘fifth C’ amounts
to attaching corporate sustainability messaging
to one of the jewellery industry’s most established
and historically significant frameworks.
Let’s be clear: Pablos-Barbier’s announcement
is designed to hijack the 4Cs for Pandora’s
commercial benefit. It devalues the 4Cs and,
remarkably, actually creates even more confusion
among consumers in a market that is still
struggling to come to grips with the co-existence
of natural and lab-created diamonds.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Pandora has
run afoul of the broader industry when playing
‘politics’ on the matter of diamonds.
Poor timing
“I’ll be dead before
somebody comes
into my shops and
says: ‘Can you show
me your sustainable
products?’ It’s just
not in people’s
minds when
they’re shopping
this category.”
The timing of Pandora’s publicity stunt makes the
entire exercise even more extraordinary. It comes
after the world authority on diamonds - and an
independent body - declared that the traditional
4Cs should not be used when assessing the
quality of lab-created diamonds.
“We craft our
jewellery with
sustainability
in mind and
by introducing
the 5th C, we’re
empowering
consumers to
make informed
choices.”
In October last year, the GIA began issuing revised
Laboratory-Grown Diamond Quality Assessments
that use descriptive terms to characterise the
quality of lab-created diamonds.
These assessments no longer employ the
colour and clarity nomenclature developed by
the GIA for natural diamonds. This was done
for an obvious reason - lab-created diamond
production has reached a stage where these
stones fall within a very narrow range of
‘premium’ to ‘standard’ quality.
“Since 95 per cent of laboratory-grown diamonds
in the market fall within a narrow range of
colour and clarity because of advances in
manufacturing, it is no longer appropriate to
use the nomenclature developed by the GIA to
describe the broader spectrum of those qualities
in natural diamonds for laboratory-grown
diamonds,” the GIA explained.
“The GIA 4Cs scales are based on observations
of the range of colour and clarity that naturally
occurs in natural diamonds. The scales that
describe the broad variation of colour and clarity
in natural diamonds do not apply to the very
narrow range of colour and clarity of laboratorygrown
diamonds.
“Therefore, it is more appropriate to use
descriptive terms rather than grades for such
small differences in colour and clarity.
“This change will help differentiate natural
diamonds and laboratory-grown diamonds,
providing a greater understanding of their
differing origins, characteristics, and qualities.
This will benefit both retailers and consumers,
providing them with the necessary information to
make informed decisions.”
Therefore, shortly after the GIA had determined
that further separation and distinction were
paramount when comparing natural and labcreated
diamonds, Pandora decided to further
expand on this terminology for its own benefit.
That contradiction and conceit strike at the heart
of the issue.
June 2026 | 37

Industry Hijacked | MARKETING AT THE EDGE
PAMELA ANDERSON
The sixth ‘C’: Confusion!
It gets worse because Pandora’s ‘carbon’ metric
is fundamentally different from the original 4Cs.
Cut, colour, clarity, and carat are measurable
gemmological characteristics. They are
independently assessed and directly tied to a
diamond’s physical attributes.
Carbon footprint, by contrast, relies on -
some would argue debatable - environmental
accounting methodologies and companygenerated
sustainability data rather than
standardised grading criteria.
Pandora is conflating objective diamond grading
with environmentalist brand positioning.
Even more troubling is the precedent this sets.
The 4Cs were developed to establish transparent,
objective language for diamond trading and not
to provide retailers with a platform for proprietary
marketing categories.
In a new take on the old idiom ‘judge, jury,
and executioner’, Pandora now appears to
be positioning itself as the manufacturer,
retailer, and the self-appointed consumer
standards authority!
And what will be the unintended consequences
for your local ‘high street jeweller’, not just in
Australia but worldwide? Imagine dealing with
a hypothetical Pandora customer, perhaps
shopping for fine jewellery for the first time.
The jeweller begins to explain the ‘4Cs’
– one of the easiest ways to introduce
consumers to the intricacy of diamonds –
before they are interrupted.
“The 4Cs? Aren’t there supposed to be 5Cs?
Pandora’s products always have 5Cs,” the
customer interjects.
Where does that leave our friendly local jeweller?
Are they supposed to further complicate the
issue by explaining that, well, actually, that’s
only a system that Pandora uses? Is the jeweller
supposed to explain that it’s only a marketing
exercise and that they should trust his business
rather than Pandora?
Environmentalism “not the driver”
Let’s be clear: Pandora has every right to
provide additional environmental information
about its products.
Greater transparency around sourcing may
become an increasingly important component of
jewellery retailing.
The controversy arises not from the disclosure
itself but from the decision to frame it as
an extension of the globally recognised 4Cs
framework.
It has the feel of a marketing meeting from a
comedy sketch - a team of lovable misfits is
tasked with connecting sustainability to the 4Cs,
and the main character has a ‘lightbulb’ moment
standing around the water cooler.
“Carbon starts with a C… can’t we just make
that the fifth one?” It might even be funny if the
ramifications were not so serious.
With that said, the issues surrounding Pandora’s
‘fifth C’ are not really about sustainability. This is
not a debate about whether consumers should
have access to more or less environmental
information about diamond production.
Some consumers may decide they care deeply
about a diamond’s carbon footprint. Funnily
enough, Pandora’s former CEO, Alexander
Lacik, didn’t think it was an important factor for
most people.
Bluntly put, it’s a
marketing hijack.
“[Environmental, social, and corporate
governance] is a nice feature, and for the people
who are interested, we have a good story to tell,
but it’s not the driver of the business,” he told
Fortune in early 2024.
“When we talk about product choice, there are
only two things that actually drive behaviour.
“You may claim that you do other things, but
design is absolutely the most important aspect
of your purchase decision on a product, and the
second criterion is price.”
“I’ll be dead before somebody comes into
my shops and says: ‘Can you show me your
sustainable products?’ It’s just not in people’s
minds when they’re shopping this category.”
That is a legitimate market discussion; however,
it’s not the issue. The root problem here is
authority, something that Pandora’s has no
mandate for.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
The 4Cs became one of the most recognised
frameworks in the jewellery industry because
they were developed independently of any single
retailer’s commercial interests and grounded in
objective gemmological evaluation.
Pandora, however, has attempted to insert
its own proprietary environmental messaging
directly into that language while simultaneously
benefiting from the reputation and credibility
of the 4Cs, which are already recognised by
consumers.
The irony is difficult to ignore. The company
claims to empower customers through
transparency while effectively positioning itself as
both a seller and a standards authority.
It is using the supposed ‘authority’ it has wantonly
appropriated from a third-party organisation
whose purpose in creating it
was to effectively hold people and companies
to account.
Who wants to leave the fox in charge of the
hen house?
What is far less legitimate is the suggestion
that a retailer can simply append its own
marketing category to one of the most
established grading frameworks in the modern
jewellery industry and present it as a natural
evolution of the standard itself.
The 4Cs were created to establish objective
language in diamond grading and not to serve
as a platform for corporate brand positioning.
Standards derive their authority from
independence and widespread application.
The moment retailers begin selectively altering
industry terminology for their own commercial
gain, that authority begins to erode and
eventually collapse.
Pandora may view the ‘5th C’ as an effective
marketing initiative. The broader international
jewellery industry, however, has every reason to
view it as something far more consequential.
It is the commercial appropriation of a globally
recognised grading framework that was never
designed to serve any one company’s interests.
Bluntly put, it’s a marketing hijack.
Robert M. Shipley developed the framework to
professionalise the jewellery trade. Nearly a
century later, Pandora appears to be repurposing
it for the opposite reason: to differentiate its
products in an increasingly competitive market.
Pablos-Barbier would be wise to reconsider this
approach before an increasingly sceptical market
begins to view Pandora’s ‘5th C’ not as innovation
but as the deliberate commercial disfigurement
of an established industry language.
Considering Pablos-Barbier replaced Lacik at the
top of Pandora’s hierarchy as recently as January,
to say the least, this was a bold introduction to the
broader jewellery industry.
38 | June 2026

FINE V FASHION
Blurred Lines
Fashion jewellery
at the forefront
The line between ‘fine’ and ‘fashion’ jewellery has never
been harder to draw. SAMUEL ORD notes that this
ambiguity may represent a valuable opportunity.
Mishka
For so many reasons, it could
rightly be argued that the
distinction between fine and
fashion jewellery has never been more
blurred. Fortunately for retailers, while
it is an interesting situation, it should
not be thought of as a problem.
Language is, of course, incredibly important in
the jewellery industry. The trade would struggle
without clear communication. Furthermore, it’s
human nature to attempt to neatly categorise
everyone and everything.
With that said, for more than a century, the
jewellery industry has attempted to impose order
on an aspect of the business that seemingly
refuses to comply with rigid definitions. Since
the rise of ‘costume jewellery’ in the early 20th
century, products have been sorted into categories
designed to provide clarity to retailers and
consumers alike.
Indeed, fine jewellery became synonymous
with permanence, precious materials, and
heirloom value. Fashion jewellery, meanwhile,
was positioned as accessible, trend-driven,
and seasonal.
The problem is that jewellery has never complied
particularly well with these distinctions.
It is all too easy to pull at the seams of these
definitions and expose flaws.
If a sterling silver bracelet features high-quality
diamonds, does it remain fashion jewellery
because of the metal, or become fine jewellery
because of the diamonds? Conversely, if a
platinum setting contains cubic zirconia rather
than diamonds, does the prestige of the metal
outweigh the accessibility and inexpensive nature
of the crystal?
While everyone seems to innately have their own
definition of fine and fashion jewellery, whether it
be based on ‘rules’ or mere ‘vibes’, it takes little
interrogation before these classifications start to
fall apart.
Fortunately, consumers rarely purchase jewellery
according to industry taxonomy alone. They
purchase according to emotion, symbolism,
aspiration, identity, and budget. The industry may
continue debating definitions; the consumer often
does not.
Traditionally, fine jewellery has been associated
with longevity and emotional permanence.
These are objects intended to outlive
the purchaser. Fashion jewellery, by
contrast, has historically been framed as
transient and expressive, designed to
satisfy changing tastes rather than
commemorate enduring
milestones. Even that
distinction appears
to be collapsing.
Engagement jewellery, arguably the purest
expression of fine jewellery, is itself deeply
vulnerable to fashion cycles. Trends in cuts,
settings, metals, proportions, and styling evolve
constantly, often with startling speed.
A celebrity endorsement, viral social media
moment, or red-carpet appearance can reshape
consumer demand almost overnight. The industry
continues to speak about ‘fine’ and ‘fashion’ as
though they exist in opposition to one another.
The market increasingly suggests otherwise.
Pandora provides perhaps the clearest illustration
of this shift. For years, the world’s largest jewellery
brand existed somewhat comfortably within the
industry’s understanding of fashion jewellery.
Yet over the past several years, Pandora
has expanded aggressively into lab-created
diamonds, directly challenging inherited
assumptions about luxury.
Over time, many prominent voices in the trade
have remained dismissive of this evolution.
June 2026 | 39

Blurred Lines | FINE V FASHION
SHAUN LEANE
Lab-created diamonds, they argue, will
ultimately occupy what Joshua Freedman of the
Rapaport Group once appropriately described as
the “lower-cost and lower emotion” segment of
the market.
It’s an argument with a great deal of merit;
however, there are difficulties to be found
in consumer behaviour. The Knot’s 2026
Real Weddings Study, which surveyed more
than 10,000 couples married in the United
States during 2025, found that 61 per cent of
respondents purchased an engagement ring
featuring a lab-created diamond.
That figure matters because engagement
jewellery occupies a somewhat sacred territory
within the traditional fine jewellery hierarchy. If
consumers are increasingly selecting lab-created
diamonds to symbolise lifelong commitment,
then surely material origin alone can no longer
function as a reliable dividing line between what is
considered ‘fine’ and what is considered ‘fashion.’
GEORG JENSEN
BECKS
The same instability extends beyond diamonds and
colour gemstones and into precious metals. White
metals somewhat illustrate the collapse of rigid
categorisation within modern jewellery retail.
Platinum, palladium, and white gold continue
to communicate prestige, permanence, and
luxury. At the same time, plated finishes and
alternative white metals allow retailers to offer
remarkably similar aesthetics at dramatically
different price points.
Consumers may move between these categories
without hesitation because they are prioritising
outcome over classification. They want jewellery
that feels meaningful, versatile, expressive, and
aligned with their identity. Whether a piece sits
within a traditional industry category is secondary.
This may explain why the industry’s
ongoing obsession with rigid definitions
concerning fine and fashion jewellery
increasingly feels misplaced.
Earlier this year, Pandora intensified the
conversation yet again when it launched a range
of platinum-plated bracelets in selected stores
across Europe. Predictably, the move triggered
fierce debate among jewellers online. Some
interpreted the launch as an attempt to elevate
the company’s positioning. Others rightly viewed
it as further erosion of the already unstable
boundary between fashion and fine jewellery.
Truthfully, the reaction may have revealed
something deeper. Namely, that the industry
remains emotionally attached to distinctions
consumers have already begun abandoning.
That attachment is understandable. Human
beings instinctively seek certainty. Cognitive
scientists describe categorisation as one of the
most fundamental human processes because it
reduces informational overload and creates what
psychologists call “cognitive economy.”
Categories simplify decision-making, and
they create predictability. They establish a
shared understanding.
As cognitive linguist George Lakoff observed:
“There is nothing more basic than categorisation
to our thought, perception, action, and speech.”
The jewellery industry is no exception. Retailers,
suppliers, and consumers all rely on distinction
because categories create order. The problem
is that not all definitions are created equal, and
some markets evolve faster than rudimentary
classification can keep up with.
Platinum, palladium, and white
gold continue to communicate
prestige, permanence, and luxury.
At the same time, plated finishes
and alternative white metals
allow retailers to offer remarkably
similar aesthetics at dramatically
different price points.
The opportunity is obvious. Retailers may
no longer be restricted to the most rigid
merchandising identities. Stores can operate
across multiple price points, serve broader
demographics, and respond more dynamically to
evolving consumer behaviour.
Fashion jewellery, in particular, provides
retailers with strategic advantages that
extend well beyond short-term trend
adherence.
The category offers access to younger
consumers who may not yet have the
purchasing power for significant fine jewellery
purchases, but are nevertheless highly engaged
with jewellery as a form of self-expression.
Importantly, these consumers often behave
differently during periods of economic pressure.
40 | June 2026

DAVID YURMAN
MISHO
While older demographics may reduce
discretionary spending in response to mortgage
repayments, rising household costs, and broader
financial uncertainty, younger fashion-oriented
consumers often continue to participate in trenddriven
purchasing cycles.
Recent research into ‘impulse purchasing’ is
intriguing. An interesting study has found that
consumer purchasing patterns remain somewhat
contradictory, with impulse buying increasing
despite high cost-of-living pressures.
A recent PartnerCentric survey, conducted in the
US, found that 81 per cent of consumers made
an impulse purchase in the past year. The survey
included more than 1,000 participants across all
age demographics. These figures came despite
53 per cent of shoppers expecting tighter budgets
in 2026, with 41 per cent of participants admitting
to buying non-essential items every week.
For retailers, this matters enormously. A
consumer purchasing affordable fashion jewellery
today may become a future bridal, anniversary, or
luxury customer tomorrow. Retailers who outright
dismiss fashion jewellery as commercially
insignificant may risk overlooking one of its most
valuable functions: relationship acquisition.
Fashion jewellery allows businesses to establish
familiarity, trust, and purchase habits long before
consumers meaningfully enter the traditional fine
jewellery market. In that sense, the distinction
between fashion and fine becomes commercially
irrelevant, as it could be argued that one category
increasingly feeds the other.
At the same time, retailers seeking rigid certainty
within product categories are looking for stability
that no longer exists. If traditional classifications
can no longer reliably communicate value on their
own, then certainty must come from elsewhere.
It can come from operational clarity,
merchandising discipline, and confidence
in product selection. This is where the
conversation shifts less from categorisation
to retail fundamentals.
David Brown of Retail Edge Consultants
has previously described the importance of
protecting the ‘core muscles’ of a jewellery
business. The analogy is particularly relevant in
today’s environment because, regardless of how
product categories evolve, strong fundamentals
remain constant.
Product is one of those core muscles. In every
jewellery store, a relatively small number of
collections, price points, or hero products
will generate a disproportionate percentage
of sales performance. Successful retailers
understand precisely which products resonate
with their customer base and ensure those
lines remain properly supported, replenished,
and merchandised.
If traditional classifications can
no longer reliably communicate
value on their own, then certainty
must come from elsewhere.
Personnel represent another critical
component. In increasingly ambiguous
retail environments, knowledgeable sales
professionals become significantly more
valuable because they help customers
navigate uncertainty. Consumers may not fully
understand the differences between what we
consider ‘fashion’ and ‘fine’; however, they
immediately recognise confidence, expertise,
and credibility.
The same principle applies to customer
relationships themselves. Many successful
jewellery businesses rely heavily on a group of
loyal customers responsible for repeat business,
referrals, and long-term revenue stability.
These customers are rarely loyal because a
retailer adheres rigidly to traditional product
categories. They remain loyal because they trust
the retailer’s judgement, taste, and ability to
curate products aligned with their needs. That
trust is commercially invaluable.
Ultimately, consumers are not entering stores to
ask whether a piece meets an industry definition.
They are asking whether it feels meaningful.
Does it elevate an outfit? Does it appropriately
symbolise an occasion? Does it align with
personal style, emotional intention, and budget?
These are emotional and practical questions
rather than categorical ones. That is why
retailers should avoid becoming overly fixated on
definitions consumers themselves largely ignore.
Customers are not purchasing taxonomy; they
are purchasing confidence, aspiration, identity,
symbolism, and trust.
As Tom Martin of Converse Digital has previously
explained, credibility is built one interaction at a
time. “Credibility is a higher form of trust and, in
my opinion, the key driver of business success,
especially when it comes to sales.”
That observation feels especially relevant in
today’s jewellery market. Consumers ultimately
determine value according to whether they
believe the product fulfils a promise.
The jewellers best positioned for the future,
therefore, may not be those attempting to restore
rigid categorical boundaries that consumers
have already outgrown. They will be the retailers
capable of operating confidently within ambiguity.
That means curating products with conviction,
communicating value clearly, and understanding
that emotional relevance now matters more than
inherited industry classifications.
The lines between fine and fashion jewellery may
indeed be blurrier than ever before. For confident
retailers, however, that ambiguity increasingly
represents opportunity rather than threat.
June 2026 | 41

BUSINESS
Strategy
Reflections on leadership
in the retail business
You can’t control what happens outside your business, so don’t let that hold you back.
DOUG FLEENER reflects on important lessons learned in business leadership.
There’s something I wish I had understood
earlier in my leadership career, and it’s
an important lesson for everyone in retail
to learn.
Like most leaders, I focused heavily on
results. That might mean sales results,
performance reviews, or customer
experience feedback. If the results weren’t
where they needed to be, I would talk with
the staff about improving them.
Over time, I learned something that
changed how I led. Most leaders expect
better results. Better leaders focus on the
specific behaviours and actions that create
those results.
Said another way, results are lagging
indicators while behaviours are leading
indicators.
Here’s a simple way to know which one
you’re doing. If your conversations sound
like “We need to do better with customers,”
or “We need to improve our margins,”
you’re focusing on results.
If your conversations sound like “We need
to learn at least three things about every
customer,” or “We need to find three new
lines with higher margins in the next thirty
days,” you’re focusing on behaviours.
When leaders get clearer about the
behaviours and actions they expect,
performance starts to change. Indeed,
attentiveness is not a personality trait. It is a
leadership discipline.
In fast-moving environments, leaders are
rewarded for decisiveness and speed;
however, when speed consistently overrides
attention, trust erodes. Staff begin to feel
unheard, and conversations shorten.
Soon, performance follows a similar path.
Being attentive and receptive does not
mean being passive. It means choosing to
fully engage before moving to action.
Here are five practical ways to strengthen
that discipline.
1. Finish listening before forming your
answer: Many leaders begin solving before
the other person finishes speaking. Make
it a rule to let them complete their thought.
You will hear more than you expect.
2. Ask one clarifying question before
offering a solution: Instead of responding
immediately, ask, “What do you think is
really driving this?” or “What outcome are
you hoping for?” Curiosity often surfaces
better solutions than speed.
3. Remove visible distractions: Put the
phone down and close the laptop. Turn
your body toward the person. Attention
is communicated physically before it is
communicated verbally.
4. Reflect what you heard: A simple,
“So what I’m hearing is…” ensures
alignment and signals respect. It
prevents misinterpretation and reduces
unnecessary friction.
5. Separate urgency from importance:
Not every issue requires an instant
answer - some require understanding.
Train yourself to pause long enough to
determine which is which.
The leaders who consistently widen
their perspective before reacting create
stronger teams and better outcomes.
Attention builds trust, and receptiveness
builds engagement.
Those
explanations
may be true;
however, they
don’t move
the business or
results forward.
Small shifts in how you show up during
conversations can shape the entire tone of
your leadership.
Being more attentive and receptive is not
dramatic; however, when practised daily, it
becomes a quiet competitive advantage.
Where will you take your business?
Right now, a lot is happening in the
world. War dominates headlines with
real-world impact. Gas prices are
soaring, and economic uncertainty
grows. Unemployment moves in the
wrong direction.
None of us controls those things; however,
business leaders still control something
incredibly important. They determine where
they lead their staff next.
In difficult environments, many leaders fall
into a common pattern of thinking. They
spend time explaining the environment.
They might say that sales may be softer due
to an uncertain economy. They might argue
that customers are cautious because prices
are rising. It might be suggested that traffic
is down because people are worried about
the future.
Those explanations may be true; however,
they don’t move the business or results
forward. With that said, leaders need
to interrupt that line of thinking. They
acknowledge the environment, but they
don’t stay there. Instead, they quickly
redirect their focus to something far more
important: Where do I lead my staff despite
these challenges?
That shift can happen immediately, and no
grand plan is needed.
42 | June 2026

The environment hasn’t changed; however,
the leader’s direction has.
And the moment direction becomes clear; a
higher level of leadership becomes visible.
This is a skill. One that leaders can learn
and practice. Instead of allowing difficult
conditions to dominate their thinking,
strong leaders learn to interrupt that
pattern and quickly refocus the staff on
what still matters.
Here are three ways leaders do that.
1. Separate the environment from the
expectation: Difficult environments are
real. Leaders should acknowledge them
openly. Ignoring reality rarely builds trust
with a team.
Strong leaders also ensure the environment
doesn’t quietly lower standards. Results
may become harder to achieve; however,
expectations around effort, service,
communication, and leadership should
remain clear.
The environment may influence results.
It should not determine the standard.
2. Focus the team on what is still
controllable: When the outside world
becomes uncertain, staff naturally focus
on what they cannot control. News
cycles, prices, policies, competitors,
and economic conditions can easily
dominate conversations.
Leadership shifts the focus back to
what is still within reach. How the staff
serves customers and supports one
another becomes more important.
How well they execute the expected
standards rises in consideration.
The environment shapes the
challenge; however, execution still
shapes the outcome.
3. Increase clarity and presence: Difficult
environments rarely improve with less
leadership. They require more of it.
Teams need clearer priorities and
expectations. Clearer communication
about what matters most right now must
be spread.
They also need to see leadership
showing up with calm confidence.
Not pretending the challenges don’t
exist, but demonstrating that progress
is still possible.
Clarity and presence give businesses
direction when the environment feels
uncertain. These shifts may sound
simple; however, they are powerful
leadership practices.
The ability to interrupt unproductive
thinking and quickly redirect a team is
something leaders can learn. It’s also
one of the core skills we practice in my
new leadership development program,
The Better Leader Now, which focuses
on creating immediate change in how
leaders think and respond in real
leadership moments.
Remember, difficult environments don’t
decide where a business goes next -
leaders do.
Want to be a better leader? Start here
Most leadership advice tells you to be
patient—that expansion, confidence, and
results all take time. They’re not wrong;
however, they’re incomplete.
When I began working on Start With What If,
I was trying to understand how real change
begins. When I looked back at the big and
small shifts in my life, I saw a pattern.
They all started with an interruption. Years
ago, someone asked me a simple question:
“What if you went one day without a drink
or a drug?” That question interrupted
my thinking. My life did not transform
overnight; however, I made an immediate
decision. The direction of my life changed in
that moment. The growth that followed took
discipline. The shift did not.
GUIDE TO GET
MORE FROM
YOUR STAFF
Finish
listening
before
answering
Make it a rule
to let your staff
complete their
thought.
Ask at least
one clarifying
question
Curiosity often
surfaces better
solutions than
speedy responses.
Remove visible
distractions
Attention is
communicated
physically
before it is
communicated
verbally.
Repeat what
you hear
Prevent
misinterpretation
and reduce
unnecessary
friction.
Separate
urgency from
importance
Not every issue
requires an
instant answer
- some require
understanding.
I have seen the same pattern in leadership.
Whether I’m working with a business owner,
an executive, a front-line manager, or
someone leading a department.
I once worked with a manager who was
close to losing his job -performance was
slipping. His staff was disengaged, and he
was on probation. What changed was not
time; it was the interruption. He stopped
defending, and he started listening. He
stopped blaming, and he started owning his
numbers and his staff.
He changed how he showed up
immediately. Over time, he became one of
the strongest leaders in the organisation.
The results did not change in a day;
however, the direction did.
That is the pattern. Immediate change
begins with interruption. Interruption
creates space. Space allows reframing.
Reframing allows for different actions.
Action, repeated, creates growth.
Most leaders wait for life to interrupt them.
It might be a tough review or a missed
target. It could be a frustrated employee
walking out on the business.
But interruption is not reserved for a
crisis. It is a capability. A leader I work with
was dreading a conversation with her top
performer. She had been avoiding it for two
weeks. Before walking in, she paused and
asked herself one question. She walked
in differently. The conversation she feared
became the one that saved the relationship.
She did not wait for a crisis. She interrupted
herself. The next time you feel stuck, pause,
and ask a different question. Doing this once
is powerful and practising it daily changes
how you lead.
DOUG FLEENER is the author of
The Day Makes The Year (Makes The
Life) and Start With What If.
Learn more: startwithwhatif.com
June 2026 | 43

BUSINESS
Selling
Customer experience? That’s not my job!
Does everyone in your store know how important they are?
JEANNIE WALTERS encourages you to reinforce that fact.
Is customer experience everyone’s job?
The answer to that question is a little
complicated – it’s yes and no.
It’s a little too easy to say it’s everyone’s
job, because then it becomes way too easy
for it to become nobody’s job. Without
leadership, customer experience
is a nice idea but never executed.
The best organisations focus on
customer experience throughout the
entire business, not just in traditionally
customer-facing roles.
How can developing leaders help create
a customer-centric organisation? By
ensuring learning involves customer
experience ideas – and real data, skills
and outcomes – for staff and employees
who sit outside the departments we
consider customer-facing.
Instead of customer service training for
those who are front and centre in your
store, think of customer experience
training for your bench jewellers.
What if we could get everyone who works
at your company to think about their
specific role with the customer?
Here are three ways to help your noncustomer-facing
teams connect with their
role in your customer-centric business.
1. Connect the dots of how their daily
work connects with the customer’s
actual experience.
“Customer experience doesn’t apply to
me. I handle just internal tech support.”
A well-meaning but misguided employee
shared this gem with me. He was setting
up the equipment for a workshop I was
conducting with the customer experience
leadership at his organisation.
I started asking him about some of the
biggest challenges he faced in his role
at a large, complex organisation.
My new friend shared how he was the
“Plan B”, which meant 90 per cent of his
work was about fixing things when they
didn’t work.
He mentioned sales and customer
support, specifically, because they were
impatient and panicked
by the time he was called to help.
Why were they panicked? Because a
customer is there, waiting for them.
See where I’m going here? My new friend
didn’t see how his role in helping these
teams respond to customers during
crises was vital to delivering a superior
customer experience.
He didn’t see how the work of his daily
tasks – keeping technology updated,
responding to challenges internally,
actually helped the entire organisation
live up to their promise to customers.
It’s up to you, as a leader, to connect
these dots on a regular basis within
your business.
Your bookkeeper needs to understand
that by paying invoices correctly and
on time, they are protecting important
partnerships and supplier relationships
that ultimately serve the customer.
This means that responding to questions
and answering emails from confused
partners or suppliers represents the
business promise to these customers, too.
2. Customer experience is a business
discipline, not a project.
Indeed, it’s a discipline with real outcomes
and measurements. Everyone in your
organisation is aware when your revenue
numbers decline or when you exceed your
sales projections.
That’s because everyone understands
that without sales and revenue, there is
no business. The same can be said for
happy customers.
What if we could
get everyone
who works at
your company
to think about
their specific
role with the
customer?
And yet we treat them as a nice-tohave.
Explain the important customer
experience metrics in your organisation
to everyone.
Share those metrics throughout your
organisation so there’s an awareness of
what matters.
3. Communicate about customer
experience like it’s trending.
Leaders often start a “campaign” about
customer experience. Maybe there’s an
article sent to everyone by email, or a
mention in the all-hands meeting.
Perhaps a certain year has been declared
“year of the customer”, so there are
posters in the hallways and a banner
across the company homepage.
But communicating without training
is like yelling, “cut down that tree”,
and expecting it to happen. Customer
experience is about so much more
than promises. We have to know how
to live up to those promises. Customer
experience should be woven into most
communications internally.
• How will this affect the customer?
• Will this new process create more or
less effort for our customers?
These are the questions you must ask as
a leader, and ask them over and over and
over again.
The best leaders create cultures
where everyone in the organisation
is willing to deliver on the customer
experience because there’s no doubt
that it’s a priority.
This means communicating about it like
you do regarding the overall health of
your business.
Customer experience only really works
if your staff is focused and willing to put
in the effort needed to deliver on it.
That is true for every employee within
your business.
JEANNIE WALTERS is CEO of
Experience Investigators and the author
of a new book, Experience Is Everything.
Visit: experienceiseverythingbook.com
44 | June 2026

BUSINESS
Management
Focus on the things that matter
Winter is coming for jewellery retailers – are you prepared?
LEON VAN MEGEN encourages jewellery retailers to get their house in order.
You're approaching the halfway point of
the calendar year. Retail feels different
right now. Foot traffic is unpredictable,
online competition is relentless, margins
are tighter, and customers are more
selective about where they spend money.
You can almost split retailers into two
groups: those waiting for conditions to
improve and those actively reshaping
how they operate. The retailers making
progress aren’t necessarily the biggest
or the flashiest. They’re the ones making
deliberate decisions instead of drifting.
Some have decided to double down and
expand. Others are simplifying, cutting
weak product lines, or focusing on their
best customers instead of chasing
everyone. Some are pivoting completely
and turning stores into experience hubs,
developing their e-commerce, or building
stronger wholesale relationships.
The important thing is they’ve picked
a direction and committed to it. You
can see it clearly in retail businesses
that know their numbers. They know
which categories make money, which
promotions destroy margin, which staff
hours are productive, and which suppliers
are dragging them backwards.
Instead of blaming “the economy” for
everything, they’re doing the hard work
of identifying the exact problems inside
the business and deciding what they can
realistically control.
Another major shift is the move toward
building owned audiences. For years,
store owners have been dependent on
“rented attention” - foot traffic owned
by the mall, or readers of the local
newspaper. Lately, it's been true with
online advertising. One tweak to a social
media algorithm or one spike in Google
advertising costs could suddenly choke
customer traffic overnight.
That’s a dangerous position to be in when
another platform effectively controls
access to your customers.
The smarter retailers are moving away
from that dependency. They’re building
email databases that get used. They’re
growing loyalty programs properly instead
of treating them as an afterthought.
They’re creating communities around
their brands through SMS lists, subscriber
groups, events, or customer content.
A store owner with 50,000 Instagram
followers sounds impressive; however,
a retailer with 8,000 active email
subscribers who regularly buy products
is sitting on a much more valuable
asset. That’s because owned audiences
compound over time. You don’t have to
keep paying to reach the same people
again and again. When a sale launches or
new stock arrives, you already have direct
access to customers.
Many retail businesses already have
underused assets right in front of them.
Existing customers are one of the biggest
examples. It’s often far cheaper and
more profitable to sell again to someone
who already trusts your business than to
constantly hunt for new buyers. Yet many
retailers barely communicate with past
customers unless they’re blasting out a
generic discount code.
The stronger operators are going back
through their customer bases with more
targeted offers, better loyalty incentives,
exclusive launches, or personalised
recommendations. They’re finding ways
to increase customer lifetime value rather
than treating every sale as a one-off.
At the same time, efficiency has become
non-negotiable. Retail has always had a
habit of burying staff in low-value work
— endless admin, duplicated processes,
unnecessary meetings, manual
inventory handling, or systems that don’t
properly integrate.
The retailers performing best now are
ruthless about identifying what creates
value and what simply consumes time.
They use technology and systems to
increase their efficiency.
The retailers
making
progress aren’t
necessarily
the biggest or
the flashiest.
They’re the
ones making
deliberate
decisions
instead of
drifting.
That doesn’t mean cutting corners
on customer service. In fact, it often
means the opposite. By reducing
wasted effort behind the scenes,
staff can spend more time helping
customers, improving merchandising,
strengthening supplier relationships, or
focusing on the in-store experience.
The businesses moving ahead are scaling
their systems rather than just demanding
more effort.
Then there’s getting the operational
foundations sorted. This rarely
gets talked about because it isn’t
exciting; however, messy foundations
eventually catch up with businesses.
Retailers that thrive over the long
term tend to have cleaner operational
structures. Their supplier agreements
are organised. Their employment
arrangements are compliant.
Their inventory systems are reliable. Their
data practices are under control. Their
lease obligations are understood properly.
Their processes are documented rather
than living in one employee’s head.
When the good times arrive, those
foundations matter. A business with
operational chaos underneath it can only
scale problems faster.
You can see the difference between
retailers who are proactively tightening
these areas and those who are still
operating reactively. One group spends
its time constantly putting out fires. The
other creates enough stability to focus on
growth opportunities.
The retail businesses that are likely to
come out stronger over the next few years
probably won’t be the ones chasing every
trend or trying to look innovative online.
More often, they’ll be the businesses
making disciplined decisions, building
direct customer relationships, using
their existing assets better, improving
efficiency, and quietly getting their
house in order while competitors
remain distracted.
LEON VAN MEGEN is the general
manager at Retail Edge Consultants.
Visit: retailedgeconsultants.com.au
June 2026 | 45

BUSINESS
Marketing & PR
Social listening: The future of the retail industry?
New tools and programs are headed for your industry.
DONNA ST. JEAN CONTI explains an emerging new trend in retail business.
In recent years, social listening
has changed from a reactive crisis
management tool into a proactive
strategy for crisis prevention
and trend prediction.
With today’s social media ecosystems,
businesses face the risk of rapid
escalation, which has opened the door for
opportunities to use AI-powered listening
tools to spot early warning signals.
In the future, for jewellery retailers,
this may include detecting customer
frustration with repair turnaround times,
pricing concerns, stock shortages, or
negative sentiment around popular topics
of discussion in the trade.
This is especially prevalent on platforms,
such as Reddit, where a business can
detect emerging sentiment and brewing
issues before they spiral out of control.
Social listening goes far beyond keyword
tracking. Today’s leading tools now
combine real-time monitoring, nuanced
sentiment analysis, and predictive
capabilities that detect threats or
opportunities across text, images, audio,
and video.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub,
today’s AI models deliver near-instant
insights: they scan millions of posts,
comments, and multimedia content,
extracting sentiment, emotion, and
context with increasing cultural and
linguistic accuracy. These tools are even
starting to detect sarcasm, complex
feelings, and intent.
The same source highlights how
platforms can anticipate trends by
evaluating mention velocity, hashtag
growth rates, micro-influencer activity,
and emotional spikes. Some tools then
measure a “virality potential” score to
predict whether a rising topic might
become widespread.
The early warning system
For more proactive crisis prevention,
monitoring Reddit has become a top
strategy. At Cannes Lions 2025, Reddit
launched its Community Intelligence
suite, including Reddit Insights, currently
in alpha, a scalable, AI-driven social
listening platform built on more than
22 billion posts and comments.
Using proprietary metadata and AI,
Reddit Insights delivers real-time
brand sentiment tracking, trend
detection, concept validation, and
competitive intelligence drawn from
Reddit’s user-generated discourse.
According to Reddit, major companies
have used it to anticipate shifts in
audience perception and emerging
topics before they go mainstream.
As public conversations on Reddit often
precede larger cultural trends, brands
tapping into this intelligence gain an
edge, identifying consumer grievances,
emerging buzz, or future campaign
resonance before other channels report
on the momentum.
Crisis prevention hinges on interpretive
capabilities. Tools must not only detect
negative sentiment but also understand
its emotional depth and likely trajectory.
Nuanced emotion AI can classify posts
into emotions like joy, anger, fear,
surprise, and track these over time,
alerting teams when sudden mood shifts
occur that may signal discontent.
These tools also predict crisis
potential: machine-learned models
correlate patterns historically
associated with viral backlash, such as
abrupt spikes in negative sentiment,
to generate early-warning alerts and
automated action suggestions.
Platforms now embed generative AI
to provide written summaries. For
example, “sentiment dipped following
negative press about our new feature”,
and suggest response actions, and even
draft initial response copy for the public
relations team that is grounded in real
data and interpreted sentiment.
Tools must not
only detect
negative sentiment
but also
understand
its emotional
depth and likely
trajectory.
Integrations with messaging apps or
customer relationship management
(CRM) platforms allow these alerts to
automatically trigger workflows, creating
tickets for product teams, triggering
executive alerts, or notifying staff.
Ethical and privacy considerations
As social listening tools become more
powerful, privacy and transparency have
moved into the forefront.
Aim Technologies highlights that
AI listening tools are implementing
stronger anonymisation, algorithmic
transparency, higher filtering standards
to avoid sensitive content, and
compliance with evolving regulations
such as the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR), the California
Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), or
equivalent laws globally.
Explanations of how AI-generated
insights are produced build trust
internally and externally, prevent misuse,
and ensure that signals are ethically
sourced and responsibly applied.
Food for thought
While AI-powered social listening may
once have seemed relevant only to global
brands, the increasing accessibility of
these tools means independent retailers
can also benefit from customer insights,
stronger reputation management, and
improved responsiveness to emerging
market trends.
For jewellery retailers, the real value
may lie not only in avoiding reputational
issues, but also in better understanding
changing consumer expectations in a
competitive and fast-moving market.
Social listening has moved far
beyond passive observation. It is
now a proactive, AI-enabled function
that predicts crises, surfs cultural
momentum, and empowers businesses
to engage with audiences more
authentically and strategically.
DONNA ST. JEAN CONTI is president
of St. Conti Communications, an
award-winning full-service marketing
communications agency.
Visit: stconticommunications.com
46 | June 2026

BUSINESS
Logged On
How data can help improve your employee experience
Are you struggling to see the complete picture within your store?
MICHAEL HINSHAW encourages you to reconsider how you manage employee experience.
Employee experience often appears
in conversations about culture,
engagement, or leadership. Those
topics matter, yet they rarely capture
what employees face on a workday.
Most people judge their workplace
through small daily interactions. A slow
approval process, confusing instructions,
or difficulty finding support can shape the
way work feels.
Career growth questions may be linked
with unclear development paths. These
patterns rarely appear inside a single
data source.
Organisations gain a broader
understanding when they view these
signals together. That view often reveals
opportunities to improve employee
experience in ways that influence
productivity and retention.
Many businesses collect feedback
through surveys or internal reviews. That
information helps; however, it only shows
part of the story. Real understanding
appears when feedback connects with
operational signals and workflows.
This article explains how data helps
organisations improve employee
experience in practical ways. You will
see how employee feedback, operational
insight, and journey analysis combine to
reveal patterns that leaders can act on.
Employee experience does not live
within a single system or department. It
forms across tools, policies, leadership
behaviour, and internal support. That mix
makes it difficult to understand through
opinion alone. Data helps bring clarity.
Many companies begin their employee
experience efforts with engagement
surveys. These surveys ask useful
questions and reveal broad sentiment
across the business. Among bigger
companies, staff often track scores
carefully and discuss trends each year.
Surveys still capture only a moment
in time. Employees respond after
experiences have already shaped their
opinions. A frustrating onboarding process
may appear in feedback later. By then, the
issue may already affect your staff.
Operational signals add another layer
of understanding. These signals often
highlight patterns long before survey
results appear. A clearer picture begins to
form when leaders combine these signals.
Feedback shows how employees feel.
Operational data shows what happens
during daily work.
Connecting feedback with signals
Employees often describe problems that
originate in processes rather
than attitudes.
Someone may say that onboarding
felt confusing. Another person may
mention delays in accessing tools. These
comments sound personal, yet they
usually point to operational breakdowns.
Operational data can confirm these
patterns. A long wait for system access
might show up. Delays in approvals might
appear inside workflow systems. A training
process might reveal repeated drop-offs.
When feedback and operational signals
align, the cause becomes clearer. Leaders
stop guessing why frustration appears.
Instead, they see the exact moments
where employees face obstacles.
That insight helps organisations improve
employee experience by focusing on real
problems rather than broad assumptions
about morale or motivation.
Work through the employee journey
Employees experience a company as
a sequence of moments, not as a set
of isolated policies. Hiring begins the
relationship. Onboarding shapes early
impressions. Daily work interactions
influence confidence and productivity.
Role changes, performance reviews, and
career development create additional
stages along the way. Each stage carries
expectations, and some moments
reinforce trust, while others weaken it.
Journey analysis connects these stages
into a timeline. Leaders see how an
employee moves through the business
over months or years. Patterns appear
across departments and systems.
For example, onboarding delays may be
connected with slow equipment delivery or
incomplete documentation.
Most people
judge their
workplace
through
small daily
interactions. A
slow approval
process,
confusing
instructions,
or difficulty
finding support
can shape the
way work feels.
How should you approach this task?
Employee journey mapping focuses
on understanding real workplace
experiences rather than merely producing
diagrams. A journey map acts as a
structured view of how employees interact
with the organisation over time.
This connects insight with practical
decisions. Several elements guide that
approach:
Evidence-based journey mapping: Analysis
begins with real data. Employee feedback,
operational metrics, and internal process
signals form the foundation of the journey.
This approach replaces assumptions with
observable patterns.
Persona development grounded in
context: Employees do not share identical
experiences. A bench jeweller, a sales
assistant, and a store manager all interact
with systems and staff in different ways.
Identification of experience gaps: Journeys
often reveal moments when expectations
break down. An employee may expect
quick access to tools but end up waiting
several days. A new hire may expect
structured guidance yet receive scattered
instructions. These gaps highlight where
improvement can begin.
The connection between employee insight
and business impact: Internal experiences
affect productivity, service quality, and
retention. Employee experience touches
HR, IT, operations, and leadership staff.
This structured perspective helps
organisations address internal friction
with clarity rather than speculation.
MICHAEL HINSHAW is president of
McorpCX, which focuses on customer
experience management.
Learn more: www.mcorp.cx
June 2026 | 47

My Bench
Gong Zhang
Michael Hill International
• AGE: 35 • YEARS IN TRADE : 15 • FIRST JOB: Swarovski
FAVOURITE GEMSTONE Diamonds.
FAVOURITE METAL 18-carat gold.
FAVOURITE TOOL File.
BEST PART OF THE JOB
Talking with people.
WORST PART OF THE JOB
Targets and deadlines.
BEST TIP FROM A JEWELLER
Rhodium plating is only for white gold
or silver.
BIGGEST HEALTH CONCERN ON THE BENCH:
Dust.
LOVE JEWELLERY BECAUSE
It is so beautiful.
48 | June 2026

June 2026 | 49

OPINION
Soapbox
It never hurts to ask
someone for a second opinion
Be honest - are you working in your jewellery store, or on your jewellery store?
MELANIE HANCOCK discusses the value small changes can have on the big picture.
For a long time, I treated myself more as
an employee than as a business owner.
That might sound strange coming from
someone who runs a jewellery store, but
I think many independent retailers will
understand exactly what I mean. I simply
worked hard within the business every day.
What I didn’t understand was that I was
never working on the business.
Like many family-run jewellery stores,
ours has always been built on honesty,
relationships, and genuine customer
service rather than pressure selling.
We’ve always believed the important thing is
finding the right product for the customer.
It doesn’t matter if it’s an expensive ring
or an affordable bracelet. That approach
has served us well over the years and
has become a major part of our identity
as a business.
At the same time, the realities of running an
independent jewellery store have changed
enormously. My sister is my best friend and
works full-time with me, while my partner
is the jeweller upstairs handling repairs,
remodelling and custom manufacturing.
Over time, we also significantly expanded
our CAD design work, which has become a
major part of the business.
But with a small team comes an
enormous workload. Then came the rise
of social media and digital marketing,
which created another layer of pressure
for small business owners. Suddenly,
if you weren’t active online, it felt as
though customers couldn’t properly
see who you were, what you created,
or what made your business unique.
Like many retailers, I simply adapted as
I went along. I learned what I needed to
learn and added it to the increasing list of
responsibilities. Before long, my full-time
job in the business had effectively become
two full-time jobs. I was working in the
store during the day and, at night, behind
the scenes, managing social media,
marketing, and everything else that
now comes with modern retail.
Eventually, I realised something needed to
change. I had been curious about business
coaching for a long time.
But finding a business coach who
understood my business and the jewellery
industry seemed almost impossible until I
was connected with Malcolm Scrymgeour.
I decided to try coaching for a few months,
and two years later, I'm still doing it. Finding
a jewellery industry-specific coach was
like finding the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. Initially, I thought the idea was to
help me better structure my staff. I wanted
support with roles and staffing decisions.
I thought it was about understanding who
should do what and how I should manage
the business more effectively.
What I discovered instead was that the
coaching process was really about
changing the way I managed myself.
One of the biggest lessons was learning
the difference between working in the
business and working on the business.
Before coaching, my focus had always been
fairly simple: work hard, purchase stock, pay
the bills, save money and hopefully take a
holiday once in a while.
Like many small business owners, I had
spent years operating on instinct and
momentum. I was ‘coping’ – but that’s it.
The coaching process forced me to step
back and properly analyse the business,
rather than simply reacting to
day-to-day demands.
Importantly, it also taught me accountability.
I realised very quickly that coaching
only works if you are prepared to do the
work yourself. Nobody can transform
your business for you. They can guide
you, challenge you and help you identify
opportunities, but ultimately you have to
implement the changes.
That accountability became one of the most
valuable aspects of the experience. I also
realised that meaningful change takes time.
Had I only committed to business coaching
for a few months, I probably would have
slipped straight back into old habits.
After all, water always follows the
path of least resistance.
Many small business owners are incredibly
resilient and adaptable, but we are also
very good at falling into routines and
simply coping with whatever is directly in
front of us.
Those are
conversations
many
independent
retailers put
off because
there’s always
something more
immediate
demanding
your attention.
The longer-term coaching process helped
create consistency and discipline, which
eventually became part of how I approached
the business every day. Over time, it also
made me think more seriously about the big
picture - both personally and professionally.
For years, working six days a week simply
felt normal. That’s often the mentality in
small businesses. You just keep going
because that’s what needs to be done.
But eventually, you need to start asking
bigger questions about longevity, balance,
and what happens if the business relies too
heavily on just one or two people.
It’s always in the back of your mind, but I’d
never stopped to seriously answer those
kinds of questions. Those are conversations
many independent retailers put off because
there’s always something more immediate
demanding your attention.
The coaching encouraged me to stop
operating in survival mode and start putting
proper systems and structures in place.
Maybe most importantly, none of this
meant changing who we are as a business.
We are still the same down-to-earth
jewellery store we have always been. We
still focus on honesty, relationships, and
helping customers find the right piece for
them. If anything, the business coaching
strengthened those qualities by giving us
greater clarity and confidence.
What changed was the structure around the
business itself. There is now a much clearer
understanding of responsibilities, priorities
and long-term direction. Decisions are
made more strategically than reactively.
More than anything, though, the experience
changed my mindset. For the first time, I
truly started thinking like a business owner
rather than simply someone working inside
the business every day.
And once that changed, everything else
started changing too.
Name: Melanie Hancock
Business: Diamonds Plus
Position: Owner
Location: Lismore, NSW
Years in the industry: 24
50 | June 2026

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June 2026 | 51

Contemporary Australian Designs,
Swiss Precision Movement
52 Become | June 2026 a stockist today 02 9290 2199
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