There’s good news and bad news in the Jewelers Board of Trade’s industry stats for the year 2013.
The good news is there has been a sharp drop in the number of companies going out of business. The bad news is there are still a lot more companies exiting the business than entering it.
The total number of industry business discontinuances for the year 2013 in the United States and Canada was 763, an 18.5 percent drop from the 936 businesses that packed it in the prior year. (The business discontinuances category includes bankruptcies, businesses that ceased operations, and businesses that consolidated or merged.)
Most of those discontinuances were from retail jewelers. But the number of retailers going out of business fell, to 612, from 702 the prior year. The amount of discontinuances among wholesaler/manufacturers also dropped—to 131, from 211 the prior year.
Still, more people are exiting the business than entering it. The number of new jewelry businesses appearing in 2013 was 289, a 6.2 percent drop from the prior year.
As of the fourth quarter of 2013, JBT counted 21,646 retailers in the United States—a 1.8 percent drop from the prior year—as well 4,159 wholesalers and 3,010 manufacturers. Overall, JBT has 28,815 listings for the United States—down 1.5 percent from the prior year.
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