Singapore- The couple behind The Canary Diamond Company, William Lam and his wife Judy, can finally breathe a little easier, after having put the past 12 years into building Canary Diamond as the go-to jeweller for many of Asia's elite.
The couple's eldest son Steven and his wife Lum May Yee have joined the company. And youngest son Johnny returned home last month to lend a hand after a stint with a De Beers sightholder selling polished diamonds in China.
Steven said: "Dad finally has time for some golf."
Under the leadership of William, 66, and Judy, 64, The Canary Diamond Company built up a client base that includes some of Singapore's most influential people, high-flying executives and the region's tai-tais; many are from countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Japan, who seek out Judy for the company's latest offerings, many designed by her husband.
Although Canary Diamond started up here in 2000, its story began in Hong Kong, from where William and Judy come.
He was born to the second wife of a successful goldsmith and herb shop owner in Hong Kong in 1947. But the patriarch died when William was only four. The family continued to be taken care of in the following years by his father's first wife.
Things changed when William was 12. His step-mother died, and, in a tussle for the family's assets, his step-siblings ousted him, his three siblings and his mother. They moved out of the family home and his mother became a seamstress to get by.
After high school, at age 18, William, as the second of four children and the oldest son, felt that it was his responsibility to help his mother bring up his younger siblings.
His late father was in the goldsmith business and this gave him an interest in jewellery design, so it was natural that his first full-time job would be at a jeweller's.
But he lasted all of two months there; his mother, who saw him climbing the ladder to clean the air-conditioner, couldn't bear it and asked him to quit his job there.
He next became an apprentice at Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company, already a highly established name in Hong Kong then.
He said: "When I first started, I didn't know a thing. Back in those days, when you asked the seniors a question, they would not give you an answer. They would say: 'You are young. Take your time to learn.' "
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Picking up skills
That was what he did. Between running errands for the company, he watched his seniors at work. In between, he honed his jewellery design skills.
After work, he attended design classes as well as classes in Japanese and French, which he loved. After three years, he was given a supervisory role at Chow Tai Fook.
Larry Jewelry, then relatively new to the industry, wooed him. In 1969, he joined Larry as the manager of its first shop in Hong Kong.
"I was mainly in charge of design and, in those days, I would sit at the same table with Larry (Chan) and we would talk about how to design the jewellery and how to do the promotion and the marketing."
It was there that he met Judy, who was also working there. They got married in 1974.
The following year, he was sent to Singapore to set up Larry in a corner unit at Orchard Towers.
In 1976, Judy, with 10-month-old Steven, relocated to Singapore, where they have remained since. By 1999, William had become general manager of Larry's four outlets here.
Setting up shop
But, after 30 years at Larry, both he and Judy sought a slower pace of life. They took a one-year break from work, but their customers urged them to set up their own shop.
In 2000, the couple put $300,000 into opening Canary Diamond in a 300 sq ft unit at Delfi Orchard, known in the 1980s as a luxury mall.
It was, in William's mind, a "discreet" location. Being away from the busiest part of Orchard Road, it would thus offer the privacy their clients would appreciate, he thought.
They named their company Canary Diamond, after William's love for the yellow stones. He said: "Yellow is my favourite colour. You can see it on my ties and a lot of my belongings. Among all coloured diamonds, I like the yellow diamond the best. Yellow is also a happy colour."
Canary diamonds were not much sought after back then, but have gained popularity in recent years, with jewellers such as Tiffany & Co launching collections featuring them.
But Canary Diamond deals in diamonds of other hues as well, along with rubies, emeralds and sapphires. The couple had wanted to work just a few days a week, and leave their employees in charge the rest of the week.
But it remained just that - a plan, because the business took off. The first year turned out "better than expected". Revenue has been growing by 20 per cent each year since, said Steven, who declined to disclose actual sales figures.
"We've invested all our profits in the last 12 years in building our inventory. We now have one of the largest collections of ideal-cut diamonds in South-east Asia."
The shop now takes up 1,800 sq ft in Delfi Orchard.
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A new generation
Steven and May Yee came into the business in 2009 from their own flourishing careers.
Steven, 38, was an investment banker before that, and had worked in the retail industry for groups and brands such as FJ Benjamin, Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy and Ermenegildo Zegna.
May Yee, 40, was a model and actress who was in marketing and public relations for Singapore Airlines. They left their jobs to join the family business because William and Judy were getting on in years.
Steven said: "Dad had a long chat with me. He said, 'Look, I really want to play some golf this time'. The lease was coming up for the space, and he said that if Johnny and I were not coming back to help, then they would scale down the business."
Steven now helps his father to design jewellery and buy and cut stones; May Yee is in charge of human resources and the public relations and marketing work for the brand.
Canary Diamond has grown even bigger. Months after they joined, the company entered into a joint venture with Matthew Campbell Laurenza's MCL; under the deal, Canary Diamond runs MCL's South-east Asian operations. MCL now has two stores - in Takashimaya Shopping Centre and Paragon - run by Canary Diamond.
The line is under the charge of May Yee, who is helping to grow its presence here.
Last November, Canary Diamond took up counter space at Takashimaya, which carries designs aimed at the younger crowd. It was the Japanese department store's first foray into selling diamonds.
It took Steven five years to convince his father and Takashimaya to agree to the move - one he feels is essential for the company: "It was time to reach out to the wider market. Most of our business comes from our regular clients."
Canary has no expansion plans for now - in or out of Orchard Road.
Steven said: "We're already working with the best. My dad has always said that it is a 45-minute drive or so around Singapore. If a client is prepared to spend $50,000, he will be prepared to drive 45 minutes around Singapore to find the right jeweller. So it's not where you need to be that matters. It is what people think of you that's most important.
And how we present ourselves is something we're very careful about. We don't like to be too loud. We are more selective. This is something that's very carefully curated. My dad has always said that it's good to be just under the radar."
Staying put
Overseas expansion is also not on the cards for now.
May Yee said: "One reason why there isn't a pressing need for Canary Diamond to venture overseas is that clients tend to prefer coming here to buy jewellery."
Steven added: "They feel safe here. I remember our Indonesian clients saying that they can wear their five-carat rings to the market here - something they cannot do back home. So we want to reach out to more clients in countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, but think it is better for them to come here."
Canary Diamond is building up a presence on the Internet, setting up a Facebook page and a website to reach out to overseas customers and maintain relationships with the children of their regular clients here.
However, the company does not accept online purchases. The medium is meant to inform clients about the company and its offerings, and about precious stones.
May Yee said: "These are luxury items. You want to see it, touch it and make sure the colour is right." Her husband added: "We think education is a better way to introduce the company. We want people to be aware and make an educated choice when they make a purchase, and we are here to help."
Asked whether Canary Diamond's subtle marketing efforts will work in its favour when its competitors are aggressively putting themselves out there, the family said it believes so.
This is because of a service the company offers - customisation work.
Steven explained: "A lot of the time, our clients go to my dad and ask him to design something special for them. They choose the stone and go through the design process together. Some jewellery pieces take six months to make, but each is unique."
He said 80 per cent of the work on the pieces is done here, and the remainder sent to Hong Kong; Canary Diamond has 29 very busy craftsmen in its three workshops here.
Everything points to their getting busier. This comes from Steven's vision for Canary Diamond going forward: "When you have a special moment in your life, you think of us."
These reports first appeared in the July/August 2013 issue of The SME Magazine, a bi-monthly publication produced by The Business Times. Look out for the next information-packed issue, which comes free with a copy of BT, on Sept 4.
Photos: BT, ST, TNP, Steven Lam, Mediaworks
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