Gift Focus inc Attire Accessories - November/December 2020

COMPANY PROFILE 133 LBJ JEWELLERY T: +44 (0)7584 673 163 www.lbjjewellery.com How do you keep your designs fresh and current? Do you follow trends? We are continually pushing our manufacturers to create new designs for our review. Buying trips abroad to visit our suppliers are a crucial part of creating new designs and working with their designers to create products relevant to our market. We don’t specifically follow trends but it is important to be aware of what is current, and how the silver market is evolving. What sets you apart from your competitors? The range of product that we offer, added to the exclusivity of many designs and the fact that the majority of our products are supplied from stock. We are also a small business of two, therefore we are able to offer a very personal service to all of our customers. Most importantly making the trips to see our customers at their place of work across the country. No distance is too far for LBJ, we travel to the most Northern parts of Scotland and down to Devon. How are you finding the current economic climate in the UK? Is it affecting business? Like everybody we have suffered the period of lockdown, but since shops have reopened, we have been pleased and surprised how busy some of them have been. We do understand the importance of a digital presence, which is why we have now launched a wholesale e-commerce website. Having a platform online where customers can browse our range and shop is becoming a new normality that we realised we had to adapt to. Moving in to 2021 it is uncertain how people will feel about face to face interactions so this will seemingly support that social change. Visiting our customers, however, is so important to us and is one of our preferred methods of selling. We don’t see the website as an alternative to our normal encounters in people’s shops but it offers a valid alternative. Are you active on social media? How is this important for the business? We do have an Instagram account that Annabelle manages as best she can to keep our customers abreast of new designs and news. Do you have any advice for new businesses starting out in the world of gifts? Make sure you are passionate about your product, when you get that right the rest should follow. What can we expect in the future from LBJ? More excellent silver jewellery and a new showroom.