Stronger yuan, longer break bring business boom to HK jewellers

Hong Kong jewellers are enjoying a business boom, thanks to a stronger yuan and a longer break for the Mid-Autumn Festival on the mainland.

Some jewellery shops have reported sharp increase in sales as more mainland shoppers opted to spend three days of their mid-autumn break in the city.

Although the mainland officially allocates only one day to celebrate the festival, the government has allowed workers to take Wednesday to Friday off in exchange for extra shifts before and after the break.

Ricky Ng, the general manager of TSL Jewellery Hong Kong, said the company's more than 20 outlets across the city were packed with mainland shoppers from Wednesday noon. Many of the shoppers were from eastern and northern China and they splashed out on necklaces, rings and watches.

Ng said the company's sales in the first two days of the mid-autumn break rose 20 per cent year on year.

'The longer holiday enabled people to take short trips, and Hong Kong is one of the ideal destinations for such trips,' he said, adding that about 60 per cent of the company's customers were from the mainland.

Another jeweller, Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, the chairman of 3D-Gold and Hong Kong Resources Holdings, said daily sales at its 275 3D-Gold shops in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland exceeded HK$10 million on Wednesday and Thursday - twice as much on a normal business day.