Century-old DeVries Jewelry is family affair

Dennis DeVries remembers well how his Grand Rapids jewelry store came to join MRA and Michigan Jewelers Association about 40 years ago. His father and partner, Gerald, had little interest in joining associations, but they did attend trade shows.

“The first year we attended the Michigan Jewelry Show, it was held at a beautiful hotel in Dearborn. But the rooms were all booked up, so we were staying at a Holiday Inn down the road,” remembered Dennis.

“I was chatting at MRA’s booth with a member representative. I said, half-jokingly, ‘this hotel is beautiful. Get us a room in this hotel and we’ll join.’

“As it turned out, the MRA representative had worked at the hotel previously and he pulled some strings to get us a room! Well, I had to keep my promise, so we joined. It turned out to be a good decision.”

Dennis is the grandson of the store’s founder, Siebern G. DeVries, who opened the store in 1901. When Siebern died at age 42, his wife, Cornelia, ran the business for 11 years until their son, Gerald, came in to the business in 1933.

“She did a remarkable job, seeing the business through the Depression, and she stayed active in the business until she passed away in the 1950s,” said Dennis.

Today the fourth generation, Dan, David, and Debra, are active in the business, and Dennis intends to draw up plans for business succession in the next year.

“We have to look at the various options together, but I look forward to having that in place. We don’t want any bumps in the road.”

Dennis’s wife, Phyllis, also works in the store, making DeVries Jewelers truly a family affair. All of them see the advantages of such an arrangement.

David, the younger son, enjoys working with his family, noting that they get along well and understand each other’s scheduling preferences.

“One thing that helps a family business thrive is respecting the younger generation’s ideas and working those ideas into the business,” said Dennis. “I don’t always go along with their ideas, but my father didn’t always go along with mine! The younger generation keeps the store fresh—they’re tuned in to the tastes and trends of their age group.”

Staffing with family also helps keep overhead down, since the store requires fewer outside employees and the costs associated with hiring, managing and providing benefits.

Owning the building and their merchandise is another way the business keeps overhead low.

“The mall stores have costs we don’t have, and they have little control over those costs,” explained Dennis. “There’s the rent, of course, and other fees. And they must be open on Sundays and until 9 p.m. each night, something we don’t want to do.”

The DeVries family also chooses not to sell merchandise on a memo (consignment) basis, as so many jewelers now do—“We own it all, so we had better find a way to sell it!” said Dennis, who feels it’s a sounder way to run the business.

Dan, the older son, believes what makes their store successful is good relationships.

“We try to establish relationships with our customers, and that makes the difference. Obviously, we must have a wide and good selection of products and competitive prices. But it’s the solid service and the relationships that make a family-owned business unique and valued.”

The DeVries have also kept abreast of the latest trends over the years, such as having a bench jeweler on site, the recent trend toward more colored stones, and branded diamonds—a trend Dan believes is here to stay.

DeVries carries a private label of South African diamonds, through one of the buying groups the business uses: the Retail Jewelers Organization. RJO, owned and operated by its jeweler members, is the nation’s oldest buying organization for independent jewelers.

Through an RJO program, Dennis has traveled to South Africa twice, and Dan went last fall. They go to the cutting factory and get to know those involved in the process. It helps give a story to tell with the jewelry.

“Customers can go anywhere and look up a 000-VS1 diamond,” said Dan. “What they really want is the experience, the romance associated with buying a diamond. What’s exciting about a bunch of numbers?”

DeVries Jewelry did a major promotion centered on Dan’s South Africa buying trip. It began with plenty of pre-trip advertising.

“We encouraged customers to come in and let us know what they wanted, and we would go to South Africa and look for particular stones that meet their descriptions,” Dan explained. “On our return we showed these people what we had found for them.

“There was no obligation to buy, but we gave them that special attention of listening to their ideas and trying to please them with our finds. We also advertised after the trip and generated a lot of interest in our South African diamond brand.”

Another successful promotion focused on the store’s 100th year of business. Working with an ad agency, DeVries had a pullout section in the Grand Rapids Press.

“It came out before Christmas—the timing couldn’t have been better,” said Dennis. “Our advertising agency tied in some of our vendors as well.”

Dennis and Dan agree the decision to use an ad agency to handle all their advertising was a smart move.

“Our agent works with any size budget, and it’s a much better way to go,” said Dan. “We’re paying him a percentage, but he gets better rates, so it balances out.

“He knows what he’s doing, just as we know what we’re doing with jewelry. We let him pay attention to getting the right mix of various forms: print, billboards, television and radio ads, and direct mail.”

The store’s website is ready for a redesign, and Dan is currently seeking a website designer and developer to redesign the site. He believes a good website is an essential part of a store’s overall presence today.

“Young people, especially, will form an impression of a store by its website. So having an up-to-date, professional looking site is crucial,” said Dan. It’s one of those ideas that 65-year-old Dennis trusts to the younger generation.

This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer.