Blend of heritage and modernity leads to success at Weir’s

Weir & Sons jewellers was established almost 150 years ago and is situated at a premier location on Grafton Street in dublin. Established in 1869 by Thomas Weir, it is still a family business and is now run and managed by fourth- and fifth-generation family members. It employs more than 85 staff in its stores on Grafton Street and Dundrum Town Centre.

Weir’s has always been associated with high-end and classic brands such as Patek Philippe and Tag Heuer, but it is not a slave to the past. Recent innovations at the company have seen the introduction of a new fashion jewellery floor downstairs in the Grafton Street store.

Affordable brands

Times have changed and a retail space that for many years housed Waterford Crystal and expensive chinaware now showcases affordable, entry-level jewellery brands such as Alex and Ani, Paul Costelloe and Ted Baker.

Christopher Andrews, the operations director at Weir and Sons, is the son of managing director David Andrews, who is a great-grandson of founder Thomas Weir.

Christopher's sister Lucinda Andrews is marketing manager and his sister Natasha Andrews works in the fashion room, making the Weir and Sons moniker seem something of a misnomer.

Still, a blend of heritage and modernity persists at Weirs, which leads to continued success at the business.

Christopher Andrews says turnover slumped at the company by 45 per cent between 2008 and 2010, the worst year of the recession for the business. “The recession had a massive impact on the business because what we’re selling isn’t really a necessity for anyone,” he says. “We’ve got 70 people working at the Grafton Street store across five floors including gemmologists and watch specialists and the jewellery and watch workshops, and 16 out in our Dundrum Town Centre store, and are proud we let no one go in that time.

“We started to look at where we could increase profits, so in 2014 we opened the fashion jewellery level in the shop. This was in order to attract a younger client with more fashion-orientated brands in the store. This market grew by 50 per cent for us last year.”

In the 1960s, the lower ground floor was the most profitable for the company with American tourists buying Waterford Crystal there but times and tastes have changed and Andrews says it was pointless to prop up this dying part of the business.

“The fashion brands don’t take away from the luxury brands as they are located on a different floor. We also wanted people to realise that they can in fact afford what we sell. It helps to do away with the intimidation factor so that, when people want to make a bigger investment, they’re not afraid to come in to us.”

Investing in an e-commerce site last year has been “surprising” in terms of uptake, says Andrews.

“People research on the website and then come in to buy the item, or they’ll come and try things on and then buy online,” he says. “Buying jewellery and watches is quite a tactile thing. So we are finding that the two strands of the business complement each other rather than one taking from the other. The website definitely adds value particularly when the consumer has the reassurance that there is a bricks and mortar store there.”

Weir’s employ four Mandarin speakers in the Grafton Street shop. “We do a fair bit of business with the Chinese tourist market in Dublin but we also have regular Chinese clients who are Dublin-based,” he says.

“We are starting to see more people from mainland Europe and the US again, and the cruise business has been phenomenal for us in the past year, with 80 ships coming into Dublin last year,” says Andrews.

Buying the Grafton Street premises outright in 1963 has had a hugely positive effect on the business over the years.

“Purchasing the building has been the cornerstone that allowed us to sustain the business over the years,” says Andrews. “If you look at other businesses that sold their premises and then leased them back in order to extract capital, many of them have now left the street.

Remain competitive

“Not having to pay rent in the last recession allowed us to weather the storm and remain competitive. It also takes a lot of the complication out of business when you’re not having to constantly renegotiate with landlords.”

Last year innovation in the fashion jewellery space and the online business saw figures return to 2009 levels. This year the company hopes to do even better. The Dundrum store, which opened in 2005, was refurbished in 2014 adding in dedicated spaces for luxury watch brands including Omega and Rolex.

"We always knew that even if Dundrum had a rough time [which it did] that it had a great catchment area," says Andrews. "The business in Dundrum is coming back strongly. Something we see as a good indication of what's going on out there economically." Weirandsons.ie