The latest statistics from the Jewelers Board of Trade (JBT) show that fewer jewelry businesses closed during the second quarter of 2025 than during the same period last year, which president Andrew Rickard (pictured, left) called a “positive sign.”
“The industry continues to see some minimal year-on-year contraction mostly driven by retirements,” Rickard tells JCK by email. “That said, [the number of] businesses ceasing operations have declined much more significantly year-over-year. That’s a positive sign that those focused on doing business and continuing operations are not exiting the industry at the rate we saw last year, especially in the wholesale and retail categories.”
Overall, the number of North American jewelry business discontinuances fell 27% during the second quarter, to 177. Of that number, 147 were retailers, 15 were wholesalers, and 15 were manufacturers. All but three of those discontinuances were in the United States; the rest were in Canada.
These numbers reverse the trend from the first quarter of the year, when discontinuances increased nearly 17%. For the first six months of 2025, the number of discontinuances is down nominally, to 393 from 420.
The JBT defines a discontinuance as a company going out of business, merging, or filing for bankruptcy.
There was also good news as far as the number of new businesses entering the industry during the second quarter, which rose to 97 from 83 during the same period last year.
Overall, JBT listed 23,497 North American jewelry businesses on its rolls at the end of the second quarter of 2025, down 3% from the prior year. That breaks down to 17,820 retailers (U.S. number: 16,873), 3,451 wholesalers (3,241 of them in the U.S.), and 2,226 manufacturers (U.S. total: 2,104).
Photo courtesy of Jewelers Board of Trade