Phil Ainsworth, owner of 150-year-old family business Ainsworth Jewellers in Blackburn, Lancashire, reflects on the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic and highlights how he is looking to channel the resulting resilience into charting a course through the next national crisis: the cost-of-living.
In June 2020, the UK was in the thick of the first national Covid lockdown. It was at this stage that Phil Ainsworth, owner of Blackburn jewellers’ business, Ainsworth Jewellers, first joined us on the Leaders Council Podcast. At the time, Phil indicated that he had been using the initial few weeks where the business was closed to devise plans for expansion ahead of when restrictions would eventually ease. In August 2022, Phil returned to the programme to look back on how his company had fared in such tough times, and how it was getting to grips with the latest national challenge of rampant inflation.
Sitting down with host Scott Challinor, Phil recalled: “At the time we last spoke, we were in the midst of huge uncertainty, not really sort of knowing when we'd be able to reopen again. But secondly, when we did reopen, we had no idea how we were going to fare trading wise.
“So, it was a very concerning time, but a very productive time for us. My wife is a diamond grader and geologist and we got talking and brainstorming. She worked as a consultant and her business had dried up at the time, so it made sense for us to join forces in Blackburn and take a relook at the whole of the family business. Rather than just being a retail jeweller that sort of sat there and waited for customers to come in, we decided to be very, very proactive in going out there and engaging with customers remotely.
"As a result, we had a phenomenal couple of years and in the last 12 months we’ve done brilliantly business wise, but also productivity wise. We’ve come up with so many different thoughts, ideas and solutions to put into the business and we're very much looking forward to a very exciting future.”
In 2021, Phil and Ainsworth Jewellers particularly benefited from many members of the public enjoying the easing of domestic social restrictions, but not wishing to holiday abroad so quickly with some international travel restrictions still in force.
Phil explained: “With people not being able to go abroad and with people wanting to live life a little bit at home, they’ve been coming in and buying jewellery. Figures wise, we doubled turnover last year, which we are absolutely delighted about, especially in very difficult times.”
Yet, with inflation in 2022 beginning to eat into the spending power of consumers, Phil is anticipating further challenges on the horizon.
“The cost-of-living is a huge challenge and a huge worry going forward. I don't think really any of us understand where this could lead to, which I think is even more worrying. The fact that we're already seeing business owners starting to talk about their customers being in crisis when they’ve come in because of how much their fuel bills have gone up and food bills have gone up, it is a concern when you’re a retailer and need people to spend in store.
“Another thing we have seen which sort of started through Covid is that people have been coming through and selling a huge amount of gold. We’ve seen a real increase in that over the last year and the rate of this happening is considerably increasing, and for any retail the back end of the year is key. Considering this is when we’ll really see people struggle as they put their electric, gas and heating back on, I can see footfall and consumer spend dropping in businesses like ours.”
However, having successfully mapped a route through Covid, Phil remains optimistic that the business can navigate troubled waters again.
“We have to keep positive, and we have to keep promoting the fact that we're doing things slightly differently. Customers know that they can come in and talk to us about things and I think such goodwill and positivity is the way forward in this situation."
Photo by Tahlia Doyle on Unsplash
