As Partridge Jewellers celebrates 160 years in business, managing director Grant Partridge talks to Rebecca Barry-Hill about resilience, opportunity and succession.
You might not think a new ring would cause much excitement in someone surrounded by jewellery, 24/7. Not so for Partridge Jewellers’ managing director Grant Partridge.
“Magnificent,” he breathes,
To be fair, this is no ordinary ring. Two silver ferns encrusted with diamonds fold around a mesmerising 2.40ct Colombian emerald the size of a pinky nail. It’s one of a handful of “very rare and very expensive” stones Grant has acquired to create a collection of special, commemorative pieces to mark Partridge Jewellers’ 160 years in business (or 210 years if you count the company’s origins in England, before Grant’s great-great-grandfather emigrated to New Zealand in the late 1800s). The emerald is extraordinary in that it’s completely natural, meaning it has not been oil- or heat-treated to enhance its colour or clarity as most stones are.
“Can I have another look?” says Grant, interrupting himself as he spots French head designer Andrea Lethiers crossing the office again with the ring. Lethiers explains how Te Urewera National Park inspired the design. Another ring in the collection uses a pink sapphire, taking its design cues from the now-buried pink and white terraces of Lake Rotomahana.
“Just incredible,” he says, inspecting it for the second time. “This takes us to another level.”
Grant represents the fifth generation of his family’s business, making Partridge Jewellers one of the oldest family-run companies in Australasia.
The company has long since forged a reputation as the place to go if you’re looking for a timeless or traditional piece made by goldsmiths, jewellers and stone-setters. As well as producing its own collections and offering a bespoke service, Partridge Jewellers has more recently become known for selling international jewellery brands such as Chopard, Mikimoto and Roberto Coin, and watch brands including Rolex, Patek Philippe and Omega.
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Advertise with NZME.“Up until 25 years ago, we just had one shop in Wellington, not much bigger than this room,” says Grant. The company has certainly come a long way since early settler James Partridge opened a jewellery store in Timaru, before expanding into Christchurch and Wellington. The capital soon became the true home of the brand, the city where both Grant, and eventually his children, grew up. Though Grant didn’t become a jeweller like many of his forefathers, he has an ambitious business brain that proved advantageous throughout his 48 years in the business, beginning as a 16-year-old fresh out of high school.
“In those days you either worked for the bank or for your father,” he explains. He started out running messages to and from the post office, sweeping the floors and polishing the glass for his “tough” and hard-working dad, Raymond, who would spend every weekday in the store until 11pm. “It was glitzy!” he protests, when Viva suggests his humble beginnings don’t exactly conjure glamorous visions of working in jewellery. “It was a very, very busy shop with beautiful jewellery in it.”
Today, you could say Partridge Jewellers has a second home in Auckland’s Queen St. At its recently renovated flagship store at 112 Queen St, one of four Partridge entities on the famous strip, visitors can watch jewellers on the tools or browse the company’s opulent collection. Among the many show-stopping pieces: a DeBeers Forevermark graduated diamond necklace, an art deco Piaget diamond-embellished watch and a collection of Faberge egg jewellery.
Watch aficionados also have their pick of luxury timepieces at Partridge’s two newer stores at 75 and 44 Queen St respectively, where, since December 2022, they’ve represented the Swiss luxury watch brands Rolex, Patek Philippe, Cartier, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger LeCoultre.
The Partridge head office and Rolex service centre is located upstairs at 75 Queen St, along with a workshop farther up the street. The irony is that for such small items, they require so much real estate – but as our worldliness as a nation has grown, so too has the Kiwi appetite for luxury.
If ever there was evidence that Queen St is still a glamorous retail destination, it is perhaps the fact that in mid August, Partridge Jewellers launched a boutique for Swiss watch brand Tag Heuer (at number 58) and is currently exploring opportunities elsewhere on the street for at least one other high-end brand, set to open in the next 12-24 months.
There is clearly enough interest floating around to populate each of these stores, alongside the likes of high-end jewellers Bulgari, Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co (in nearby Britomart). There are also whispers Cartier will open a boutique on Queen St later this year.
This level of growth downtown would not have been possible without two things, Grant explains: the influx, over the past 20 years, of immigrants from Asia and Europe, and the growing popularity of luxury Swiss watches globally. His success in securing the exclusive ambassadorship of many of these collectors’ item brands has allowed the rest of the business to thrive, he says. In order to keep up with the rapid growth of the company in Auckland, the family relocated from Wellington to Auckland – but only as recently as two years ago.
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Advertise with NZME.“To be able to do what we’ve done here [opening exclusive watch boutiques for international brands] is quite a coup,” says Grant. “We’re making strategic moves. It’s not that we’ve gone out to purposely do it; there’s just been an opportunity.”
Writing about the resilience of the diamond industry in the jeweller’s second annual magazine, World of Partridge, Auckland general manager Glenn Peachey acknowledges the economic tumult of the past few years, the pandemic lockdowns meaning the closure of physical stores, the disruption of the supply chain and jewellery prices being pushed up. However, luxury consumers emerged from the doom “ready to spend”, he writes, their wallets a little fatter due to not being able to splash out on travel.
Grant agrees the jewellery industry has not been as acutely impacted by the economic downturn that is currently contributing to other retailers’ struggles.
“It’s fairly resilient,” he says. “We’ve been fortunate we haven’t been affected to date. With a family business, when those tough times come you’ve got control over how you run things, but also the people that work for you. And a lot of them are like family.”
No family holiday was ever complete without a little business mixed in with the pleasure, says Jack Partridge, who, at 24, is the youngest family member involved in the business. Trips to Australia’s theme parks in his youth – and even a sojourn to Italy last year – were interspersed with visits to jewellery stores with his brothers to check out presentations and trends. Though he currently works full-time as a consultant at PwC, Jack works part-time for the family business as its digital specialist, aiding the team with social media marketing. His partner, Sylvia Halim (“Dad’s favourite child,” jokes Jack), is Partridge’s head of jewellery. One day, Jack says, he aspires to return in a more substantial way.
Jack recalls starting out in Wellington in the office doing stock management and admin, cleaning the store windows and ripping through every envelope and package to make sure nothing valuable had been left behind before it went into the bin.
“As a family we’d have conversations about work and the business,” he says. “It wasn’t necessarily just at the dinner table. It was everywhere we went, whether we were on holiday and we’d be sidetracked into jewellery stores, or just constantly talking about the business. Over time you just get really involved in the conversation. There’s never been a pressure as such [to join the business] but it naturally becomes a passion when you grow up around it.”
Grant agrees. “It has engulfed our life.”
How does his wife feel about that? “Well, I’ve had a couple,” he chuckles. “You’ve got to have someone who really understands it,” he says.
Heather Partridge works in the business too, in a sales role.
It would be tempting to compare the Partridges to another famous family, the Roys of HBO TV show Succession, loosely based on Rupert Murdoch’s media dynasty. Like the Roys, there are three sons and a daughter and a lucrative business run by the patriarch of the family, but that’s about where the similarities end. Whereas the Roys’ battling egos leech into every endeavour, the Partridges take a humble approach. Family values are behind their success to date, insists Grant, and that’s important to the global brands they work with, many of which are family-run themselves. He bought the boys an “entry-level” Rolex when they each turned 21, but, says Jack, “it came with the knowledge, ‘you’re on your own now’.”
Perhaps if there are any parallels with their TV cousins it’s that, though nearing retirement age, Grant has no immediate plans to step aside, his tireless work ethic inspired by his dad, Raymond, who passed away in August.
“But I do want to stop doing seven days a week,” he says. “It’s full on. And I’ve done that for the last 48 years.”
Eldest child Nikki has an arts degree and has previously worked for Partridge as a jewellery designer, but has since decided not to pursue a career in the business. Then there’s eldest son Sam, 28, who has worked at Partridge Jewellers the longest, starting at the Wellington store, where he learnt the ropes, to now, as front of house in the Rolex-Patek Philippe store, where he has built up a large and loyal clientele. Cory, 27, previously worked for the government as a lawyer and was instrumental in helping the company join the Responsible Jewellery Council. When he comes home from his OE in the UK, he is likely to return to the family business.
“It’s fair to say there’s a bit of sibling rivalry between us,” says Jack, “but never when it comes to the business. Dad made sure to beat that out of us at a very young age … Nothing keeps you more engaged and passionate than the idea of building on a family legacy so if anything, we’re more excited to be involved together, especially with Cory showing his recent interest.”
“I couldn’t be prouder to have my three sons involved,” says Grant. “They’ve done very well at university. They’ve all done well outside of Partridge Jewellers. I’ve always said that if they want join the business, they’ve got to start off sweeping the floors as well.”
He adds that he’s been careful not to directly “encourage” his children into joining, preferring to let them decide for themselves the best course for their futures. But the question of succession is important to many of the suppliers they have built up relationships with, the likes of fellow family-run businesses Ole Lynggaard, Patek Philippe and H Moser Cie eager, to ensure their investment in new territories is successful.
Despite the future of the company weighing on Grant’s mind, his sons are “not yet old enough” to run the business, so he’s employed Nicola Owbridge as Partridge Jewellers’ first CEO. Even there, however, there is a family link – Nicola had worked with the business through her role at auditing services company KPMG, where she was previously Jack’s boss.
Partridge Jewellers is now gearing up for a special event in November, when the company celebrates its 160-year milestone by hosting some of the VIPs of the jewellery and watches world. Where to from here?
“I’m not saying that we want to have more shops or lots of shops,” says Grant. “I just love jewellery. I love stones. Obviously I like watches as well … but we really want to concentrate on our own brand, Partridge. And you’re going to see a lot more of our own work. We design and manufacture a lot of jewellery and the business will become more prominent over the next two years. Whether we take that brand outside of New Zealand I don’t know. But it won’t be me.”
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