Jewelers of America Releases 2014 Cost of Doing Business Report

(IDEX Online) – Jewelers of America (JA), the national trade association for businesses serving the fine jewelry marketplace, has released the 2014 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Report, a benchmarking tool for retail jewelers and the only one of its kind.

The Report compiles 2013 financial data from a cross section of jewelers and reveals sales, product distribution and operating trends of retail jewelers along with high-profit performance indicators so owners and managers can compare their figures and learn how to become more profitable.  

“The Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Report is designed to make it easy for jewelers to take a closer look at their balance sheets to benchmark their business operations. Our goal is to help retail jewelers see where opportunities lie and become more profitable,” says JA President & CEO David J. Bonaparte.  

Jewelers of America will be hosting a free webinar on September 10 to reveal even more results and show retailers how they can reach realistic profit goals.

The 2014 Jewelers of America Cost of Doing Business Report indicates that high-profit jewelers manage their profit margins and operating expenses more effectively than low-profit jewelers.

In 2013, high-profit jewelers had an 11.9 percent profit margin, three times more than the median for all jewelry firms (3.6 percent). High-profit jewelers also better managed their operating expenses, which accounted for 33.1 percent of their total expenses vs. 42.6 percent for all firms.

The Report demonstrates that greater net sales do not equal high-profit (high-profit firms had $1,170,512 net sales compared to $1,771,773 for all firms). The Report also shows that high-profit firms may not always perform better in all critical profit variables but their combined critical profit variables performance produces better overall results. 

The Report provides detailed financial results for participating firms based on income statement, balance sheet and operating data for fiscal 2013. It has detailed data tables organized by jeweler category (high-end, mid-range, chains, designer), annual sales (under $0.8 million; $0.8 - $1.6 million; $1.6 - $3.5 million; over $3.5 million) and high-profit firms. The tables have more than 200 key performance measures, including:

•           How a store’s financial performance compares to that of industry averages and high-profit jewelers

•           Sales volumes within store types

•           Productivity ratios

•           Inventory turnover

•           Operating expenses

•           Balance-sheet data

•           Product distribution, including bridal jewelry sales