British Jewellers' Association

Sharing data with the Jewelers Board of Trade, (JBT) writes JBT president Dione Kenyon, checking individual credit reports and monitoring JBT's regular weekly newsletter of industry updates and changes helps members of the diamond and jewelry industry have the information needed to make the better-informed business decisions that can protect their interests and lead to competitive advantage.

For those who are not familiar with our organization, The Jewelers Board of Trade, (JBT), serves members of the diamond and jewellery industry worldwide, as a dedicated resource for obtaining and sharing credit information on firms operating in the United States Jewellery industry, including suppliers, retailers and industry service providers. In addition, we provide collection services, marketing lists, and regularly issue vital statistics and reporting on U. S. industry size, composition, and trends from data we gather in the course of our credit bureau activities. Focusing on the diamond and jewellery industry is what we do, and all that we do via our staff of 40+, headquartered in Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. All of our services are delivered on-line 24 x 7 at www.jewelersboard.com.

Operating as a not-for-profit, member owned trade association, we’ve been successfully managing the confidential sharing and distribution of credit-related data for close to 130 years in fulfillment of our primary mission, which is to promote the “interest, betterment, and education of the jewellery industry…” through the provision of credit and collections services.
JBT’s membership of over 2400 includes close to 200 companies outside of the United States, with concentrations in Hong Kong, Europe, Israel, India, Thailand, and Canada. We have members in Russia, mainland China, Mexico, and South Africa.
Recognizing the increasingly global nature of the diamond and jewellery business, both for suppliers and consumers, JBT has begun to explore how to likewise expand its global reach, both in terms of attracting additional membership from the international jewelry community, and investigating how to replicate the JBT model in other countries.

To that end, we have worked to build our visibility, knowledge and relationships by reaching out to our current international members for advice as well as working with international jewelry trade associations, becoming active in CIBJO, and attending international trade shows. I was fortunate to be invited to the IDMA/WFDB meetings last year in Moscow to present on the JBT model, what we have to offer, and credit conditions in general. Currently we are working with our counterparts in Canada and the UK to explore JBT expansion in those areas. We’ve made the commitment to travel and connect with local leadership in these markets, (JBT staff have just attended major trade shows in both countries) as well as to invest in the legal and
operational research to assess what business model may be possible. And we are in discussions with other international industry organizations, trade press, and credit service providers to learn about how they operate globally and where potential alliances might evolve. Today, in addition to our 29,000 listed companies in the United States, we have approximately 1300 in Canada and about 250 in the UK as a result of our early work on building the quantity and quality of data for those markets. Some of this is by virtue of data already coming to us via our U.S. members who are selling there, giving us a good start for building our listed company base.

Aside from the demands of additional human and financial resources to grow internationally, one of the unique challenges for a credit bureau, and so for JBT, is the need for local infrastructure to support it. At JBT, we already have a scalable systems infrastructure, credit knowledge, and experience to support operations and credit groups worldwide, but beyond this, there needs to be an in-market system of public records, transparent financial standards, and a legal system that allows the gathering and confidential sharing of information. Equally important, we absolutely cannot succeed, or even get started, without a nucleus of local leadership from the diamond and jewellery industry willing to share their payment data and recruit others to do so as well. This is all present in our U. S. market activities and critical to our value and relevance anywhere in the world. We’ve found that there is a great deal of interest in obtaining JBT’s data, but the difficult part is making this work in both directions. We cannot develop good data in any market where the stream of information does not flow both ways.

While JBT’s traditional mission has its roots in credit diligence, as supply chain integrity, social responsibility, and transparency become increasingly valuable to today’s world consumers (and by extension to the retailers who sell to them), the business information contained in our credit reports also can serve in support of “knowing” one’s business partners. Sharing data with JBT (which is easily and securely accomplished electronically), checking individual credit reports and monitoring JBT’s regular weekly newsletter of industry updates and changes helps members of the diamond and jewellery industry have the information needed to make the better-informed business decisions that can protect their interests and lead to competitive advantage.

At JBT, we fully understand that our progress into global markets will require education, for us, and our prospective members, time, patience, investment and building a foundation of new relationships and resources to be successful. We also know, however, that its important to move in this direction along with the industry, and indeed our current members, so that we can more fully achieve the mission we were founded upon.

We’re looking to the leadership of the industry worldwide to join JBT on this journey and share in the benefits of the data and services we’ve built for over a century. I look forward to meeting you in my travels and invite you to contact us for further discussion and information at dkenyon@jewelersboard.com.