Aussie brand succeeds in UK

Men’s jewellery company Cudworth Enterprises has appointed a distributor for the United Kingdom and Ireland, and plans to expand further afield in the future.

Southern hemisphere retailers seem to possess an almost insatiable hunger for European jewellery brands. Homegrown supplier Cudworth will be hoping that the trend can go both ways, however, and has announced a partnership with a UK-based distributor to sell its products to British retailers.

Cudworth Enterprises’ director Darren Roberts told Jeweller that the idea to enter the UK market came from recognising its commonalities with Australia.

“We believe the UK market is very similar to here,” he said. “I just know since we've been selling in to the UK, we've found that the men’s jewellery market is still largely untapped, like here in Australia. There are other companies covering it but not focussing on it 100 per cent.”

Cudworth has been distributing to a handful of retailers directly from Australia but used English trade fairs to court a possible distributor.

“We exhibited at the London Jewellery Fair last year and the Birmingham Jewellery Fair earlier this year to build our name and brand awareness in the UK,” he said. “We were putting the feelers out there for a distributor as well.”

Darren Roberts, director, Cudworth Enterprises

The brand experienced encouraging early signs for potential traction with the UK market, but Roberts quickly realised that appointing a locally based distributor was essential to keep retailers happy.

“A lot of UK retailers have said they don't want to deal direct with us because of the freight and import tax costs, which are very high,” he said. “They have said they will deal with Cudworth again, but not directly. They've always said if we have a distributor they would work with us, because having that helps them avoid some of the charges.”

Cudworth signed up MDS Consulting as its UK distributor. Roberts says he was impressed by the company’s years of experience in the jewellery and watch industry, its “sales ethics” and willingness to travel around the UK and Ireland to help grow the brand. He said Cudworth doesn’t necessarily strive to be the biggest brand in the UK, but is happy to get any kind of foothold in what is a very large market.

"We will start off slow. We have 12 accounts we've already handed over for MDS to look after and they will look for more business,” he explained. “We're the largest wholesale men’s jewellery company in Australia and New Zealand, we don't have to be the biggest in the UK, I just want to have a share of that market. It's a much bigger market than ours, I want a piece of it, I feel like we're ready for it now.”

Cudworth's men's jewellery

Roberts said Cudworth was already operating in France under another brand name and plans to look at finding an American distributor once market conditions start to improve.

He said his brand was one of several Australian suppliers in demand from overseas markets. “There are other Aussie suppliers, especially on the women's side, that are already selling overseas,” Roberts said. “It's nice to see other Australians receive success overseas, but we won't ever neglect what's happening here.”

More reading

Aussie jeweller puts ring on leading lady

Posted August 28, 2012