The primarily regional jewellery retail chain of nine Victorian stores, which first opened in Ballarat in 1896, has now completed refits on its Melbourne and Geelong locations, with the Geelong store hoped to become the chain’s most prized outlet.
Store manager Paul Whittaker said the refurbishment was a part of rebranding Thomas Jewellers as a more upmarket retail destination.
“It feels like a complete revamp. It is a gorgeous-looking store now and we have some real quality items in place, such as Autore Pearls and some new watch brands and some other really lovely pieces. It was a real delight to come to work,” Whittaker said.
Whittaker said despite a few tweaks to the plan along the way and a couple of unexpected obstacles, the refit had still come in only marginally over the $3.3 million price tag. He said the builders had been faithful to the original design of the building when working on the existing sandstone, while the clock that hangs on the building had been replaced among other significant internal and external renovations.
Whittaker said the opening day had been a positive one given it was, as he described, a soft opening, with a larger VIP official launch event planned for Thursday night. The new face of Thomas Jewellers, Nadia Coppolino, fiancée of Geelong Cats AFL footballer and local identity Jimmy Bartel, will help launch the event.
“We will also have the new mayor [Keith Fagg] coming along to officially open the store for us on Thursday night, while there will also be loyal customers, suppliers and our architects.
“Monday was quite a steady day, certainly steadier than a normal day. A lot of people were just coming along to have a look and see how wonderful it is. It went really well, there was a real vibe and excitement in the whole store.”
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