The Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) found that 160 North American jewelry businesses closed their doors in the third quarter of 2022, a 24% jump from the third quarter of 2021.
The JBT has seen year-on-year jumps in jewelry business closures for most of the year.
The discontinuances in the third quarter included 133 retailers, 18 wholesalers, and nine manufacturers. Eight of these discontinuances were in Canada, the rest were in the United States.
JBT considers it a discontinuance when a company ceases operations, consolidates (i.e. is sold or merges), or files a bankruptcy. An overwhelming number of this quarter’s discontinuances (134) involve a ceasing of operations, though there were 25 consolidations and one bankruptcy.
But while more businesses may be leaving the industry, a healthy—and almost equal—number of businesses have entered it.
The JBT reported that 112 new jewelry businesses opened in North America during the third quarter—and all but four of them were in the United States. That breaks down to 79 retailers, 25 wholesalers, and eight manufacturers.
Overall, JBT listed 25,017 North American jewelry businesses in its database at the end of the third quarter of 2022—a 1.8% drop from the prior year. It had 23,702 listings in the United States and 1,315 in Canada.
The JBT tally included 18,940 retailers (U.S. number: 17,971), 3,639 wholesalers (U.S. number: 3,421), and 2,438 manufacturers (U.S. number: 2,310).
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