Case study: Boutique jeweller's export glow

Exporting Western Australia’s rich natural resources and unique design aesthetic to the world, Northbridge-based Jacque Cyrille Designs is considered at the forefront of boutique jewellery design.

Primarily wholesaling its unique hand-crafted pieces to boutique jewellery stores across Australia, the company has also enjoyed export success in China, Singapore, Malaysia and Middle East.

Chief executive and designer, Jacquie Chan, who has been in the jewellery industry for 20 years, says her designs are along simple lines with a classic European flavour, appealing to both domestic and overseas buyers.

Ms Chan believes her products sell Australia, and particularly WA, as a central theme, by incorporating local raw materials including Argyle diamonds, Broome pearls and Kalgoorlie gold.

“It is a bit of niche because, around the world, Australia is not renowned for jewellery design,” Ms Chan told WA Business News.

Ms Chan recognised early on that success for the business would most likely come from overseas markets rather than the domestic market, so set out developing export partners in Asia, with a particular focus on China.

“The majority of our business is for export. We do service Australia, but it’s not as strong as the overseas market for us; that was always our focus,” she said.

Towards the end of 2006, the company had achieved a foothold in the Chinese market, following successful appearances at various trade shows in China and widespread press coverage of their appearance at Shanghai Fashion Week.

Identifying the huge potential of one of the world’s largest consumer markets, Ms Chan aggressively worked towards securing distributors and retail stores for her collections.

But doing business in China proved a challenge, requiring a lot of time, effort and money, not to mention knowledge of local business practices and expectations.

“Any business owner before they venture into China needs to speak to other people who have had previous experience, because there are some things that you never think of or would never think of,” Ms Chan said.

“Shanghai is so different to Beijing, and Beijing’s so different to Guangzhou. Although they’re in the same country, they all work differently and the markets are very different.”

Seeking assistance from the Austrade office in Shanghai was crucial, according to Ms Chan, both for support and advice on doing business in that country.

“You can’t just walk into China by yourself,” she said.

“Austrade are there to support you; you need that support, especially if you can’t speak the language and find it difficult to try and build relationships.

“All business is actually done based on relationships, so if you don’t have a rapport with your client, it can take a while before business actually happens.”

Austrade representatives arranged for prospective clients to meet with Ms Chan in China to discuss possible sales deals.

“[Austrade] actually fly and bring their clients to you in China. So you would actually know before you departed that you’ve got 30 buyers coming to see you,” she said.

Ms Chan also received advice from the Small Business Development Corporation’s TradeStart advisers, as well as other business owners who had done business in China.

Some of the key pieces of advice Ms Chan heeded were to be street smart, use common sense, and to run background checks on potential customers.

Ms Chan also endeavoured to personally engage her Chinese representative, flying over to China to train her team and provide marketing support.

Applying effective sales systems for her overseas retailers, including marketing materials, catalogues, display materials and boxing, proved advantageous when trying to establish good relationships.

“It’s not just selling and leaving the country and not wanting to know about them. We supported them as much as we could from the marketing side of things, and I think they like that,” Ms Chan said.

Armed with a thorough understanding of how the Chinese market operates, Ms Chan is now looking to expand her presence there to incorporate a larger number of provinces. She is also eyeing the Middle East as the company’s next export focus in the coming year.

In January, the company entered into a sales agreement with a Middle East-based English businessman, potentially exposing the Jacque Cyrille brand to 25 retail stores spanning three countries.

With business booming, and new overseas clients coming on board, Ms Chan said she was looking to expand the Perth team of five staff due to the welcome surge in demand.