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The History of the Zamel Group
Lily
and Phillip Zamel opened their first store in Cooma, NSW during
the year of 1954, when construction of spectacular and vital
dams was in full swing as part of the historic Snowy Mountains
River Scheme. These were exciting years, as many of the workers
on the scheme were brought in from all over the World, giving
Lily and Phillip an early opportunity to establish their own
jewellery store.
Both Lily and Phillip, along with their first son Adrian,
arrived in Cooma, and during the years of living there, their
second son Stephen was born. It was then that Lily and Phillip
felt that city life would be more beneficial for their two young
sons, and after hearing about the growing opportunities in South
Australia, they made their move.
In 1960, with the assistance of the South Australian Housing
Trust, they opened a jewellery store in the new "satellite" city
of Elizabeth, located just north of Adelaide. They also operated
a coffee lounge in this area, which necessitated a 20-hour
working day.
They survived this pace for 12 months, selling the Celebrity
Coffee lounge and opening the Elizabeth Gallery Gift Store
instead. Four years later they decided to spread their wings,
taking the opportunity to open new jewellery stores in the
growing areas of Tea Tree Plaza at Modbury, and Parabanks at
Salisbury. This is when the real growth of the company began.
After selling their Gift Store in Elizabeth, Lily and Phillip
decided to concentrate on selling only fine jewellery, and the
company grew as a truly genuine jewellery business selling
diamonds, gold, silver, precious stones and watches.
Phillip who is a qualified Watchmaker, started to travel the
world looking for and finding new and exciting jewellery ideas
and products. Meanwhile Adrian had become a qualified
manufacturing Jeweller and Stephen had joined the business as a
retail apprentice. By this time their third son Mark had been born in
Elizabeth.
During these years of growth, Zamel's opened a store in Grenfell
Street in the City, and not long after moved to the heart of the
central business district in Rundle Mall. It was at this time
that Joe Kertesz joined the company as Secretary/Administrator.
With the company operating very successfully in Adelaide, the
Zamel Family decided to look for other areas in which to expand,
the first being Perth in 1988.
There are now 24 very successful stores in Western Australia,
and following their move into Victoria in 1990, this State now
has a total of 23 well established stores.
September '98 saw the Zamel Group expand yet again into another
Australia State… this time Tasmania… with 3 stores in Hobart, at
Eastland, Northgate and Centrepoint Shopping Centre.
In March 1999, the company opened its first store in Canberra
A.C.T. located at Woden Plaza. There are now 5 Zamel's stores in
Canberra.
This means that now, Zamel's has nearly 70 stores nationally,
with more on the drawing board…and we are constantly looking to
not only grow our business, but to also further improve our
product range, superior customer service and our image as a
reliable, trustworthy family organization.
Mission Statement
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To be the
leading retail jeweller in Australia. |
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To provide
quality merchandise at an affordable price. |
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To give
superior service to our customers. |
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To provide
a challenging, rewarding and stable working environment for
our staff. |
Culture
The Culture of the Company has developed by:
"Implementing strategies that focus on the optimum use of human
resources and staff
development, within a fair and ethical workplace, in order to
ensure success for both
the individual and organization"
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