JOHN Whitaker rather fancies the word love.
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He uses it frequently in conversation, perhaps a knock-on effect from helping young Hunter lovebirds choose their bridal rings.
But it’s also evident the 48-year-old fourth-generation member of Whitakers Jewellers is passionate about his craft.
“I didn’t build a business all about bridal because I’m out to sell stuff,” he says at the counter of his Darby Street, Cooks Hill boutique.
“We want to create an experience, that is critical to me and my team.
“They have to give it – it’s part of their DNA.
“It’s caring to the max about people you work with.
‘‘Clients come in and they become our friends.”
The idea for “the Whitaker experience” came to Whitaker in his early years working in retail in the family business.
His great-grandfather, Reginald Wilfred Whitaker, founded the family business in Muswellbrook in 1903 with his three sons.
Two more stores in Maitland followed before the family opened another in Hunter Street, Newcastle.
“I am not 100per cent sure where the first store was in Hunter Street but they later moved towards the beach, beside the old Strand Theatre near market square,” says Whitaker.
Eventually there was just one store in Newcastle and Whitaker’s father, John snr, took it over when his father died.
In 1965, John snr opened the family jewellers at the new Kotara Fair, quickly opening satellite stores in suburbs including Raymond Terrace, Mount Hutton and Belmont.
“Dad knew how to market jewellery and ... he was the only jeweller in town, really.
‘‘He was the man,” he says with pride.
Finishing school at Newcastle High, Whitaker studied accounting in TAFE then was trained in the family business.
“I fell in love with retail, because I like being with people,” he says.
Encouraged by his father to skill up to take the business into the next generation, he completed studies at the Gemological Institute of America in California, considered the number one diamond grading school in the world.
Back in Newcastle he learnt to run the business at all levels, becoming an account manager for all the stores.
When his father announced he was keen to retire, the two men set a new course for the business, slowly closing down the Kotara and satellite stores.
In 2006, Whitaker and his wife Leonie opened their Darby Street boutique, retailing high-end products rather than the “run of the mill” shopping centre stock.
Two years later the Global Financial Crisis hit and with many of their long-standing, mature-age clients curbing discretionary spending, they decided to dabble in the bridal rings market.
It was a winning idea with just one conundrum.
“To put in all the rings [on display] in gold and diamond cost a bomb and we didn’t really have that,” says Whitaker.
“We needed to find a way to get a better return on investment.”
A unique manufacturing partnership with a Melbourne firm solved the problem.
All of the rings displayed in Whitakers Jeweller’s custom-made collection are fake – that is, made from silver and that cheap but beguiling diamond substitute, cubic zirconia.
“Because we use Swarovski cubic zirconia, we get a really hot looking ring that looks real,” he says.
“This is groundbreaking, because most jewellers buy the rings directly from manufacturers.”
Customers choose a ring they like and Whitakers staff customise a concept design by both hand and computer.
“We then turn it into a complete computer rendering, a 3D hologram, and we physically print a resin model of it then we cast it,” he says.
“We are the only ones doing this in Australia.
“[Competitors] are using computer modelling but they do it in front of you, with no sample for you to try on or see.
“We give clients the chance to get it on their hand, see what it is, then they will say ‘I love this but can we change this or that’.’’
Bespoke bling comprises most of Whitakers business, but they also remake and redesign rings, and have a limited retail collection in bridal rings, coloured stones and classic jewellery.
Despite a tough economic climate Whitaker says the business had a cracker in the six months to Christmas.
“Since then it’s been flatter but we are still going close to what we want to be doing, and I think that’s because being in the bridal industry people still want to get engaged,” he says before adding with a laugh: “When we’re quiet we say ‘there’s not enough love in the air!’”
With five staff, he is less involved in the front of house than before but he keeps his hand in.
“Being in the creative space with someone, when someone comes in and they want to make something special and they want to create that moment, how can you not love that?”
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