Europa Star: How’s business?
Paul Sheeran: Times are tough. Ireland has been hit hard, we were first in and might be last out. Ireland was very dependent on one industry, property and construction, and that totally collapsed. We have a lot of distressed people and companies here, and the business has changed overnight. At first, there was total paranoia, then you realize that it’s not just you, it’s everybody. Discretionary spending has virtually ceased. For the last year and a half, we have been working with our suppliers to spend as little as possible to have the best possible stock. We can’t sit on the old stuff and then buy new stuff.
With diamonds, we’re lucky because we can break up the pieces and restyle them. With watches, a lot of brands are just out of the Irish market – many have adapted and pulled out the lines that aren’t working and put in lines that are working.

ES: What is selling?
PS: The diamond ring business is OK, because people are still getting married. Where people were spending €20,000 then, they are spending €5,000 now. Watches below €10,000 are selling, while watches over €10,000 are not. The main business is between €500 – €5000. We have cut anything that has not been working. We would rather be doing more business with less brands.

ES: How does the future look?
PS: I think it will be a long time before we get back to where we were. In Ireland, sentiments have changed and people have taken such a whipping that they are much more money spending savvy. They don’t feel the need to impress anyone. In addition, our business is home grown, we don’t have international tourism. We feel we are at the bottom of the turn and business is coming back.
A treat has returned to being a treat and that’s nice, because people who come in and buy really appreciate the purchase and they ap-preciate the experience. We, in our business, have to make sure we are doing our job so well now. There is no room for error and we have to ask ourselves why we didn’t get a particular sale. It’s making us very business savvy. Better businesses will be born out of this recession because we have been looking at every angle of our business, performance-wise.

ES: What is the secret of your success?
PS: We’ve cost cut, we’ve reduced our staff by about 50 per cent, we are keeping our hands in our pockets and using the stock we have without buying new stock. We have been working hard with our suppliers to maximize the opportunities. Business is probably 60 per cent down from two or three years ago, so we had to bite the bullet and make the necessary changes. I am 42 and I had never experienced a recession like this, but it made me look at my business like never before. Business is going to come back and when it comes back, we will be in a very good position.

ES: What do you like about your job?
PS: I ended up in this business and I love it. I have a real love for what I do. I love watches, I love diamonds. I tell the men of Dublin that they should be glad I’m not a woman as I’d be the dearest date in the city. You have to appreciate the goods and appreciate life. When people do well in life and want to celebrate, they turn to their jewellers. Jewellers rarely deal with horrible situations, what’s not fun about dealing with marriages, birthdays, anniversaries? We deal in celebration, and we deal in people’s futures. That is genuinely part of what I love to do. The children of the people who I sold engagement rings to are starting to come in to buy for themselves, and I am getting tears in my eyes. It’s brilliant to see my business get into the second generation. It’s really a joyful business.

ES: What don’t you like?
PS: It breaks my heart when there are complaints and I take it very personally. When someone on my team doesn’t do their job properly, I hate it. I hate giving anyone the opportunity to say we didn’t do our job well. I play to win, not come in second. I was trained by a Swiss watchmaker and he taught me to do things properly. The standards I worked under were so high that I am obsessed if a job is not right. The product we are selling is so sentimental, it’s not about the watch. We are on the front lines and we see the sadness and the tears first hand, which the suppliers don’t understand. It’s the sentiment that is the most important. We are selling dreams in our business, and it doesn’t matter the value of the dream, it’s still a dream.

ES: What is the biggest challenge facing your store right now?
PS: The Internet is a massive challenge to business. On the diamond side, there are so many people willing to sell with so little margin, it is commoditizing our business.
Discounting with some watch brands is a problem and it devalues the industry. It’s very hard to have one price throughout the world, but there are certain brands that do it really well. Not discounting adds value to the product and adds value to the retailers’ business. In Ireland, when the recession hit, some retailers were fireselling. Getting involved in a race to the bottom is not the way to get ahead. If it’s only on price, there is no sentiment, no love. The world has turned into a very small place, so I’ll get a call from a customer who is in another city and can buy a watch for a certain price, and he wants to buy it from me, but I don’t discount. We need to stop discounting, because it is taking away the value from our industry.

ES: What is the biggest challenge facing the watch industry right now?
PS: For independents, the biggest challenge is a lot of brands opening their own stores and competing against their own retailers. They introduce lines that they won’t let you have.

ES: How do you market your store?
PS: Ireland is so small, it’s different from other countries, and we’ve done surveys and found the best marketing is word of mouth. This is driven by doing your job properly. On a Saturday afternoon, we can have people from all over Ireland in the store. For large purchases, people will come to Dublin because they have more choice. There are great jewellers all over Ireland, but people like to keep their business private, so they prefer to buy outside of their own town.

ES: How important is customer service?
PS: Customer service is hugely important. In a small country, you can be too well known, because if someone has a bad experience they will tell everyone they know. Making sure you are doing your job is very important, especially in a recession when business is very hard earned. Having the right product is also very important. If you don’t have the right brands, it’s hard to succeed. We will not be adding any brands. The only brands we have an open door to are Patek Philippe, Rolex and Panerai.

ES: How do you handle repairs?
PS: We are about to open a new repair div-ision, open to the trade as well as ourselves. We have two watchmakers presently and three goldsmiths. We have a full design service, where we do individual commissions, so we can make special pieces for our customers.
Repair is a very lucrative part of the business. If you do it once and you do it well, you can make money from it.

ES: What is your favourite watch?
PS: I have a few favourites. I have my TAG Heuer Monaco and my IWC Portuguese and IWC Big Pilot. I absolutely adore Panerai but I won’t wear anything that I don’t sell. I love all my watches and I wear them all the time. I love my Breitling and my Zenith. I love what I sell, I just love watches.

FACTS and FIGURES Name: Paul Sheeran, Paul Sheeran Jewelers, Dublin, Ireland
How long: Since 1994
Employees: 25
Size of store: 600 square metres
Average sale: 3,000 – 4,000 Euros
Range of price: 50 Euros to over 100,000 Euros
Best selling watch: TAG Heuer, IWC, Omega
Brands: IWC, TAG Heuer, Omega, Franck Müller, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rado, Ebel, Maurice Lacroix, Dior, Tissot, Zenith, Breitling
Website: www.paulsheeranjewellers.ie

Many thanks for Paul Sheeran for taking time to talk with Europa Star.

Source: Europa Star October - November 2010 Magazine Issue