Jessie Cameron

The company was started by your parents forty years ago in 1983. Can you tell us a little more about how the business came to be, and its evolution over time?

My dad, Peter, had always been good at art, especially drawing, and had always thought it was something he would love to peruse a career in, but as a Wairoa farm boy who left school young he didn’t really know how to go about that until someone suggested a trade in manufacturing jewellery. He started his apprenticeship in Palmerston North with Keith Plier in the late seventies and then opened his own store, PJ Cameron Manufacturing Jeweller in 1984.

Dad’s goal was to make unique, inspiring, artistic jewellery, that was not only beautifully made but also affordable. This has been his mantra throughout his career, always striving to be ahead of the times, working in coloured and unusual-shaped gemstones, mixing metals and pushing boundaries with his designs.

Still now we pride ourselves on making and selling pieces that are unique and interesting, often one of a kind and nothing that you would find in a mall. We want the owners of our pieces to feel special and that their piece is individual to them.

You took over the company a year ago when your parents retired. What have been the burdens/celebrations of taking on a long-established business? What have been the learnings of this first year?

The succession of the business was a long and thoughtfully planned out one. We actually worked with a farming succession specialist to help us make the transition as smooth as possible, as there were many comparisons to the passing down of a loved family farm!

Although both Sam [co-director and jeweller] and I had been working in the business for over twenty years and felt prepared, in reality when the buck stops with you it can be quite daunting so it was important to surround ourselves with a great team of people. From our business mentor/accountant to our lawyer and bank manager, we have really drawn knowledge and confidence from this team over the last eighteen months.

We also have to credit our incredible staff members, who have remained the same in the lead up to the change and are still with us now. It was a huge boost to know the staff wanted to support us through the journey, and it was comforting to our wonderful cliental to see the same faces greeting them when they arrived in-store.

We have made small changes over the past twelve months, but nothing drastic; we didn’t want to dramatically alter the business to our tastes and put people off. Nothing was broken so nothing needed to be fixed! I think this was again reassuring to our customers that the business was going to stay with those core values and maintain the customer service that they had known for all those years.