A Family Jeweler: The Lessons I Learnt from My Father

My Irish Jeweler co-founder Peter Gavin has been in the jewelry business for more than 50 years, proudly carrying on a tradition that was started by his grandparents a century ago.

Father's Lessons

Here, Peter recalls his father’s great salesmanship, their loyal customers and why he decided to leave it all for the world of e-commerce.

Peter's grandparents owned a jewelry shop in their home of Inverness, Scotland. Peter’s father went on to establish his own jewelry business in Dublin, the Irish capital city. And after training in a watch factory as a young man, Peter joined his father in the Dublin shop and as they say, the rest is history.

Besides your training in the watch factory, how did you learn about the jewelry business?

My father. He was a wonderful salesman. He was the genuine article when it came to sales. There’s no question about that. But he was very old fashioned. He used to stand outside the shop with a cigarette in his mouth. I was in New York not too long ago and when I went down to 42nd Street, I was amused to see some of the traders doing the same things that my father used to do. I remember my brother and I used to go mad about it [laughs].

What did your father teach you?

He was very fastidious in his window displays. He was mad keen on how you displayed and he was mad keen on statistics and sales. He’d analyze everything, right down to the last screw that went into a watch or anything like that. He was very much a calculating businessman, but mainly what I learned from him was his manner in sales. He was a wonderful salesman.

Given his great salesmanship, did you end up building relationships with customers at your store, College House Jewellers?

The customers in the shop – now, this is the truth – they were unbelievable people. The shop was on Nassau Street, right outside one of the main entrances to the famous Trinity College, where the Book of Kells is, so we would get lots and lots of tourists. It was our aim to serve those people and they were amazing. A lot of them had family in Ireland, so they were coming back to visit their relations after they had emigrated. They were regular customers, and when I say regular, you’d get them every second year. We had many a customer who came in every year.

How did you attract them?

Sometimes “souvenir” conjures up a thought of tacky sort of stuff. We had really good quality diamond Claddagh rings and heavy gold jewelry, rather than what you imagine souvenirs would be. People that were coming back to Ireland from the States had done very well. They had emigrated in the 50s and 60s and made money. America was paved gold compared to what they had left in Ireland. The dollar was strong; Irish currency was weak, so they got great value, I suppose. We built up a very fine business. A lot of stores didn’t latch onto it back then. They never realized that anybody would buy a Claddagh ring with a diamond in it. Maybe we were lucky; maybe we were clever.

So, with all your success, why did you decide to move the business entirely online?

Well, I thought, “I’m getting into my 60s now, do I need all this work?” I’d met my business partner Ciaran a couple years before. I’d got on so well with the website that he’d done for me that I said to myself, “I think I’ll just close down and I’ll work on the internet.” Ciaran partnered in the business with me and, believe it or not, I’m working even harder now than I was when I was in the shop [laughs].