I was travelling in Malaysia during the last couple of weeks and was thrilled to see pride of place being given to yellow gold jewellery. It did come as a pleasant surprise, as I expected more of white gold pieces or as the trend goes white gold plated ones. Leading jewellery houses are fabricating more of the yellow ones now than ever.
The canard yellow gold jewellery is out of fashion is easily nailed in Malaysia. It does not mean that white gold jewellery is not moving. Sales to Americans and Europeans tourists are more weighted on the white gold side. Predictably, white gold plated sterling silver pieces are cheaper and being sold to low budget travellers. But the three big time buyers, Arabs, Chinese and Indians are much more infatuated with yellow gold jewellery. Richly crafted necklaces, earrings, bangles, bracelets, rings and pendants are sold in quite a large numbers.
Having visited several malls in Kuala Lumpur and nearby Pealing Jaya, I observed Poh Kong, Habib jewellers and Tomei are carving out for themselves a niche market in yellow gold jewellery. Poh Kong is ubiquitous amongst the three houses. I visited their outlets in Mid Valley Mega Mall, Bangsar, and Pavilion at Bukit Bintang, Cheras Leisure Mall, Wangsa Maju, Sunway Pyramid, Brand Vision, 1 Utama and Mines Shopping fair. Most of the staff is Chinese by extension they are catering to the local and overseas Chinese market.
Habib Jewellers, a leading home-grown jewellery house, on the other hand is targeting at Malays and tourists, most of them are Arabs or Indians. I looked at visited their stalls in Mid Valley Mega Mall, Suria-KLCC, Bangsar, Semua house, 1 Utama and Festival City. Breaking tradition of concentrating on malls only, Habib Jewellers have diversified into street jewellery by locating at Masjid Jamek, an area well known for Indian ethnic buyers.
Tomei is much of middle market stuff and located in malls with average to high traffic. I visited their stalls in Suria-KLCC, Pavilion at Bukit Bintang, 1 Utama, Festival City and Wangsa Maju.
My conclusion is that there are plenty of opportunities to both Malaysian and Foreign gold Jewellery houses to start jewellery business in Malaysia specially in the yellow side.
