Challenging times for the UK jewellery industry

Never before has the UK jewellery industry faced such challenging times ha ving faced a glut of cheap imported jewellery for decades and now with the onset of a predicted re cession for 2008 and the rise in gold prices it really is time to start promoting the UK home grown industries more heavily. We are constantly re minded of these facts from the BBC and ITV ne ws on an almost daily basis re porting on the struggling economy and the collapse of the housing markets.
Should the UK consumer be concerned about these issues? Why should we care in this day of imported mass produced goods that is virtually available in an instant? Its not yet a crime to be English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish but to buy British is be coming increasingly more and more difficult as a our ho me grown goods are squeezed from the shelves in our high streets. As a nation we are not readily offered the choice to buy British goods and therefore we are manipulated by the large retail companies to blindly support the system of mass foreign imports. This obviously affects all our designers very ha rd and many simply give up trading due to the lack of support and help from companies that in all reality could change this very unfair consumer driven retail industry.
Britain’s got talent? Well of course Britain’s got talent and its not just our pop stars, actors and entertainers but also those from the design lead industries and in particular the jewellery trade. But what is it really like these days to be a young fresh jewellery designer just having left jewellery school or a reasonably established one for that matter?
“We simply need to support these designers before the industry disappears altogether. It would be a tragedy to lose such an important pa rt of the British identity that is so mu ch part of the that dates back to the time of the Celts. We have experienced ourselves a he number of jewelers that can readily promote themselves successfully due to the co st of trade show exhibitions that once again do too little to re ally help our talent by charging exorbitant prices for exhibition space and jousting them against large multinational companies in the same arenas. This obviously affects all our designers very hard and many simply give up.”
Britain’ got talent? Well of co ruse Britain’ got talent.