Jeweler caters to well-heeled clientele

by Deborah Nason
for Virginia Business
June 2006

When Joanna Gruver Hudzik began working part-time at Haywood’s Jewelers Inc. in Rocky Mount, she didn’t see the business as a career path. But the economic boom at nearby Smith Mountain Lake changed her mind.

“I saw the potential of [the lake] and suggested to the owner that he should open another location,” she says. The owner, Harold Ingram, liked the idea and invited her two years ago to be his business partner at a new location. Now the 27-year-old presides over an upscale store, Haywood’s Jewelers Westlake, in the lake’s growing Westlake Towne Center.

The store’s merchandise includes bridal jewelry, designer lines, baby jewelry and gifts, watches and serving pieces and crystal. It also offers on-site repairs, custom designs and engraving.

The store caters to a well-heeled clientele, offering items that range in price from $100 to $26,000. “There’s definitely an appreciation for culture,” Hudzik says, in describing her customers. Most of them are over 35 and some have relocated from other parts of the country, such as New York City. Many customers are retirees, but real estate agents make up another large segment (a reflection perhaps of the soaring price of lakefront property.)

Hudzik and other independent merchants have benefited from the area’s growing commercial development. But she knows that continued growth might bring more competitors to the area. “They don’t scare me,” she says. “We want to really know our customers....and people here appreciate quality service and quality craftsmanship.”