Gardiner Bros Celebrate 85 Years in Business Ulster Tatler speaks to Michael Warke, Director at Gardiner Bros, as he reflects on the continued success of the much-loved, family jewellers across 85 years...
Is the store still operating from the original premises? We have always been situated on Waring Street in Belfast. We did begin at a smaller premises but moved slightly up the street as we needed to increase our size. We are currently in the process of expanding our current premises as the company grows, enabling us to increase our output. How has the company changed over 85 years in business? At the beginning it was solely watch parts, which we supplied to other local jewellers. As Gardiner Bros celebrates 85 years in business, can you please tell us a little about the history of the company? Gardiner Brothers was founded in 1937 in the heart of Belfast, starting off as a watch parts supplier and evolving through the years into jewellery wholesale and retail. Over the years we have supplied many other jewellers in Northern Ireland and further afield, also training a number of bench jewellers for other shops within Belfast.
As times changed, we moved more into the wholesale jewellery market then on to retail as well. We do still have a number of wholesale accounts, but retail is the main area of our business. Over the last few years we have completely refurbished our store, giving more emphasis to the high-end jewellery which we supply and sell, this can also be seen in the stock we carry, with a huge range of diamond and gemstone rings. The business is still very much a family-run company, when did you and your brother join the company? I have been working within the business fulltime for twelve years now and my brother has been working in the company for nine years. It was always something we wanted to do, from a young age we would have been in learning the trade and helping out as and where we could. Have you made any changes to the business since you became involved? As the business was well established when we joined, there weren’t any big changes that were made or needed to be made. However, over the last number of years we have put a lot more time into the online side of our business, this has helped a lot with growth, especially across the last 2 years of lockdowns. What makes Gardiner Bros unique? I think our uniqueness is due to our wholesale and retail aspect of the business, as me manufacture and custom make a lot of products ourselves, it really gives our customers a far greater range of options when purchasing a ring or item of jewellery. Over the years we have also developed a reputation amongst customers for unbeatable value, quality and service. 44-46 Waring Street, Belfast, BT1 2ED T: (028) 90234271 E: info@gardinerbrothers.co.uk www.gardinerbrothers.co.uk
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