Mitch Perry, who manages three stores in the famous diamond district of Hatton Garden, has encouraged staff to come to work after months of furlough or working remotely.
“At Hatton Garden, it is all about the customer experience, being able to go into the shops, speak to the experts who have worked there for over 40 years, to look and feel the jewellery with their partners.”
“We need to have our employees there to give customers the full experience, but also because a lot of jewellery services such as designing, cleaning and restoring needs to be done with expert equipment in-house. We also don’t want expensive jewellery going through the post or being sent to employees homes to work on. It's not exactly something you can do on Zoom.”
“Not to mention all the surrounding areas that benefit from increased footfall, including the food market on Leather Lane which is usually buzzing from all the Hatton Garden visitors and employees who work nearby.”
Mitch runs three stores under the name Hatton Garden Diamond with his father Steven Perry who has been working in the area for over 40 years. The duo say that they have taken extra safety measures in light of covid-19.
“We have added lots of safety measures including protective screens between desks and using ventilators in closed rooms to maximise airflow, ensuring no more than one person per room. A lot of good measures are in place in the Hatton Garden district anyway for security purposes, so it is quite practical to assign one room per person and give them the necessary space they need to do their job.”
Perry explains that the demand for ‘engagement rings is still very high.’ Whilst so many weddings have been put on hold, there are a lot of people who were forced to live together and are starting to tie the knot.
“The summertime is always an exciting time for romance and the desire for engagement rings and other wedding jewellery is very consistent at the moment - highlighting the need for employees to serve this demand and return back to work as soon as possible.”