|
|
Registered User
Currently Offline
|
Posts: 8
Join Date: Aug 2010
|
Hi, my name is Zak Butt. I am looking for an invester based in the U.K to help take my business further in the jewellery market. My wife and I currently sell retail and have a website at www.luvsilver.co.uk and we deal in 925 silver with semi precious stones.
We started the business with no knowledge of jewellery at all. I did a lot of research on the internet and then started discussions with manufacturers from China, Hong Kong and India.
It became obvious to me that India was the best option and I finally travelled over to India to meet the manufacturers direct. I also thought it was more important to actually see where the manufacturers operated from and from an ethical point of view that there were no children working there.
The business has done really well. We have gained so much knowledge of semi precious stones and what items sell and what don't. We have 3 manufacturers we deal with and are constantly on the look out for new suppliers.
Four weeks ago I was approached direct by a manufacturer based in the U.S.A. wanting to do business. I emailed him back and politely declined. The supplier still contacted me and wanted me to look at there designs and discuss prices.
Finally I gave him a chance and he sent over the samples. They were excellent designs and I was impressed with the quality. We negotiated prices that were beneficial for both of us.
The reason he said he contacted me was because even though he was based in the U.S.A. his father who was the manufacturer was based in India. He himself dealt with the American side of the business and customers.
This manufacturer now wants to break in to the U.K. market and would like me to sell wholesale instead of retail. The prices he is offering wholesale to me are excellent and I know we can definately break in to the wholesale market and do a lot of business.
So last week I just contacted 1 retail business based in the Leeds City Centre and asked them to come and have a look at some of our items as we were a wholesaler. The customer came over in the evening to have a look and they spent nearly £1,000 in half an hour.
This was just a sample order they took from me. They were really impressed with the prices and designs and asked if I would be willing to negotiate an exclusive contract with them so nobody in the Leeds City Centre would be able to buy the jewellery.
So this is now my business idea I am putting to you. To really make an impact in the wholesale market I need to invest in the following areas.
I need to invest about £100,000 to really make an impact. I am putting over £50,000 of my own money and I am looking for an investor to put up the other half. The benefit for any investor is that even though this is a new business, I already have the knowledge in this market as well as contacts like manufacturers to retail contacts.
The plan is to showcase our Luv Silver jewellery at the N.E.C. Birmingham in February. This is where you will see all the retailers and independants attending, to find new contacts and to pre order jewellery for their companies.
The event takes place over 4 days and roughly about 25,000-30,000 people will be attending. The reason I would like to do this is for the following reasons.
A lot of retailers here in the U.K. would rather buy from companies already based here. The reason is simple, the hassle of having to import their order from another country is time consuming and there is the added difficulty of the language barrier (believe me I should know).
As I already have the contacts from the manufacturers the stock would already be in the U.K. A lot of retailers purchase from manufacturers and find when the stock arrives there are faulty items or items they did not order etc. This can cause a lot of time and effort in sorting these issues out with the manufacturer.
The fact that we would have one unit here in Bradford so any retailer could come and visit the unit and look at the Silver Jewellery and pick and choose the items they would need. If there was any problem with their order we would be on the other end of the phone and more importantly no language barrier and no problems in replacing any faulty stock etc.
The majority of our Jewellery is handmade and is a one off unique piece because of the stones being semi precious. These handmade designs are very popular with customers compared to jewellery which is mass produced.
Also ideally I would want to find an outlet based in the South of England for the southern customers so they didn't have to travel a long way up North to view the items. I feel this is essential as this could be the difference between potential customers not coming to Bradford and spending thousands of pounds with wholesalers based in the south.
At the Jewellery show at the N.E.C. we would need to be well stocked and also plenty of business cards and promotional cards detailing the brand etc.
At the show you will get many customers wanting to buy the one off pieces there and then. So having a wireless credit card terminal there has to be a must on those days. In addition to that we will have to display our range of stock and also take orders from the customers.
Once we promote the product I really believe we will have many many interested companies ordering from us on a regular basis. This has been a really difficult decision for me to even think about offering this as an investment to someone.
I hope you appreciate that if you are interested and would like to discuss things further then I would be more than happy to meet.
These is just basically an outline of where I want to take this company forward. Also I have seen a gap in the market in regards to jewellery that not many people have seen.
I hope you have found this interesting and can see the huge potential in what we are trying to achieve. I honestly believe to be big you have to think big.
Kind Regards
Zak Butt
|
