Calvin Broyles Jewelers

Apr 28

SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV

In their own words

“Everybody that comes in we try to treat like family, how we want to be treated. We’re known for just being friendly. And that’s how we try to treat everybody. I’m third-generation. We’ve had three, four generations of families buy engagement rings and jewelry from us. That’s one thing I like to hang my hat on. We have brands, but ultimately, we want people to love the Broyles brand and be considered part of our family.”

-Ryan Broyles

Jason’s Interview with Ryan

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today we're talking to Ryan Broyles from Calvin Broyles Jewelers. How'd you get into the jewelry industry?

Ryan

We've been in business since 1947, so I was always around the business growing up. I went to school, got a business degree. Coming into business straight out of college wasn't my first inclination. I actually took the LSAT, thought about going to law school. I worked here over the summer full-time and decided I liked helping my family business grow and just helping people make memories. I really enjoyed it. It is really a good feeling to be a part of that.

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Jason
What's the feeling you want people to have when they enter the stores?

Ryan
We want them to all leave happy and with something in their hand. Everybody that comes in, we try to treat like family. West Virginia is kind of hard economically right now, but we're known for just being friendly. I'm third generation. We've had, three, four generations of families buy rings and engagement rings and jewelry throughout the years from us. Ultimately, we want people to love the Broyles brand and I think we do a good job of that.

Jason
What do you guys do differently that sets you apart?

Ryan
We have the brands, so we have a vast inventory to show. We want to get to know you and what you like. We're not salespeople. We just want you to feel comfortable with us.

Jason
How did you make that transition?

Ryan
When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life after college, I was working full-time at our Hurricane location, the one that my father runs. It was neat working with my father. He still works and he’s still in business. We clash a lot, but that opportunity to work side by side, that was cool to me. My uncle, cousins, brother, and my mom are in the business. It's a different bond you have when you're working day-to-day with your family. That drove me to stay and help continue to grow the business.

Jason
I know there's a cause dear to the team there, Heart in West Virginia Scholarship. Tell us about the scholarship. What does this mean to you and the family?

Ryan
My cousin Beau designed the necklace. He does a lot of work with CAD. He came up with it and wanted to put a charity behind it, so we started the Heart in West Virginia Scholarship Fund. High school seniors, every year we have them write all their information, their GPA. We also have them write a one-page letter of why they want to go to college in the state. We have them write an essay of what West Virginia means to them, why they want to stay, and how they can help improve the state. We want to promote people to stay in the state and help move it into the future. The last four or five years, we’ve given $6,000-$8,000 worth of scholarships for the students.

To read some of the essays is amazing, just the backgrounds these students come from, the hardships, the perseverance that they have, and they're still plugging along. It’s good we can help them, but it's also good for us to realize that not everybody is as blessed as we were to come up in a family where we have a business. It's been an awesome experience and he's done a wonderful job promoting the scholarships.

Jason
Why do you think people trust the Broyles brand?

Ryan
Longevity. We're very ingrained in our community. We went to high schools in the area and college in West Virginia. My father and uncle served on boards of hospitals and were into the Chamber and Rotary, Generation Charleston, which is a group of young professionals. We get out there, we’re active in the community, and try to help move West Virginia forward. People see that and realize that we’re gonna be here trying to help.

Jason
There's also a trend where people reJewel their jewelry. Is that something you guys offer there for your clients?

Ryan
We do a lot of remounts, a lot of custom design. It's neat to see grandma’s, grandpa’s, and mom’s rings turn into something new and modern for our clients. We offer that in-house. Several of our sales associates are really good at putting a lot of different pieces together to make a nice ring. It's cool to see it from beginning to end when they've got something that they're proud to wear, but it's also still an heirloom piece.

Jason
In your showcase now, is there anything that you're proud to carry?

Ryan
We're proud of all our brands. They're well known, but they also carry the same core values as us. Bridal’s our main thing with Hearts on Fire, Tacori, Forevermark, Verragio. I’m proud to have all those brands and they've been great partners to us. My mom and dad went to Africa with a gem cutter. They got to go to the mines. They went to Kenya and Tanzania. So right now, we've got some gemstones in the stores that they were actually able to bring back from Africa. My dad hit it off with the gentleman he went with, Roger Dearie, he’s a gem cutter. Roger asked him to come up to Detroit and taught him how to cut, so dad found some stones in the rough form and then took them to Detroit and cut them himself. We've got two or three stones in our store that went from mine to retail. I know my dad's really proud of that. He’s trying to talk my mom into getting a cutting machine at their house, so hopefully there'll be more coming soon from Don Broyles.

Jason
Any neat trends that you see in bridal?

Ryan
Sometimes we're a little bit behind the current trends, but here right now, I think you're seeing a little resurgence of yellow gold and rose gold. I think yellow gold across the country’s been making a comeback recently, but even more recently in our state. Still, the halo’s popular for us. You're seeing a little more of the traditional solitaire or diamonds down the side, just to accent the center stone more.

Jason
What do you think sets you apart in all your stores?

Ryan
Customer service. We're going to go above and beyond to make sure you're happy. At the end of the day, we want everybody to be happy with us, our family, our employees, our product. Hopefully people keep coming back to us and we keep going above and beyond for them.

Jason
What's your vision to happen to the store twenty years from now?

Ryan
Just to continue to grow, continue to get better, don't get complacent. It’d be great to sit here and say, “Let's have ten stores and be sitting on the beach somewhere at some point.” But we have a lot of work in our stores to do. The main thing is just not to be complacent. You just have to strive to continue to be better.

Jason
Talk to Meet the Jewelers. What's the one thing you want us to know?

Ryan
We're happy to be here. We're happy to have you come in and we're going to treat you like family. If you give us a chance, I don't think you'll be disappointed.