Simon Thwaites: Silvermoon owner on repurchasing the business, plans to open new stores in Christchurch

There’s a belief jewellery store Silvermoon will shine bright again. 

Simon Thwaites has bought the business again after selling it in 2017, after the new owner put it into liquidation in March. 

He's now re-purchased the business with plans to open two physical stores in Christchurch - at Riverside Market this weekend, and The Hub, Hornby, in November.  

Thwaites told Mike Hosking it was a no brainer to launch a store at Riverside as it's become a focal point for tourists. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Full circle story for your supermoon as in the jewelry
retailer founded in two thousand, sold in twenty seventeen, fell
into liquidation earlier this year into Simon Thwaite. He's gone
and bought the thing. What's significant about that? He was
the founder and he's with the Simon Morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Morning, Mike.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Emotional, the moon emotional? What do I call it?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think you said supermoon, which sounds good.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Oh no, I thought, no, No, I said silver moon. No,
there is a supermoon I could have. I mean, so anyway,
my apologies if I did silver Moon, I know, emotional
or business, a.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Bit of both. When I heard it went into into liquidation,
that was Fressh said, Do I think that? Yeah? I
think there's an opportunity there for sure.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
And so.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
In starting it and then selling it and then going
into liquidation, is that a victim of the times, because
twenty seventeen through now we all know what we've been through.
Is that a victim of the times? Or was something
done wrong without banging the person who ended up in
that predicament.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's hard for me to say from the outside, but
certainly we were successful, but times have been tough. I
mean you've had COVID and you've had cost of living crisis. Yeah,
it's been it's been pretty grim. Yeah, it's hard to
stay from the outside.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
And when and looking at what you've picked up. What
have you picked up in terms of, you know, how
doable it all is.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
We haven't picked up any stores. So we're very excited
about the website. They were doing well online and habits
have changed. People are shopping more online. We opened the
website yesterday. Tomorrow we do open our first store the
Riverside Markets and christ so we will have a store
presence and then in November we open at the Hornby Hub.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So yeah, slowly, but you've got expansion plans.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
We've got expansion plans, but it's going to be something
that we do organically, make sure that each stores of
profit sent to everything working and don't go too quick.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
So what are you? Are you a jeweler or an entrepreneur?
We're both definitely.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Not a jeweler, definitely an entrepreneur, businessman, whatever you want
to call me.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Yeah, So what do you do? Once you sold Silver Moon?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I became a dirty old landlord. I went into commercial property,
commercial property and look it's it's it's good, it's fun,
but it's a dry compared to the retail and jewelry
and on the fun that's hopefully ahead.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Do you like jewelry? I mean, are you in it
for that love it?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah? Used to used to really enjoy the product and
and supplies, all the supplies that come back on board.
So we reached out to them and they said, yep,
every every single you got a.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Programmer and Karen Walker and those sort of lines, haven't
you by.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Rang and Karen Walker sold and girlfriends involved. We didn't
get a single no. And obviously a couple of them
might have been mood so he could have been expect
being a bit of a bad response, but that never happened.
So yeah, it took the plane.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Just explained it to us in a time of great
difficulty economically speaking, Why you would bother or is it
just that connection you had with it? Or do people
like you just do what you want to do no
matter what's going on.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Oh look, I take some friend yesterday calling me a massachist,
So you could be right, Mike Butler. We're coming from
a reasonably strong financial background. We think there's a very
low risk Riverside Market opens tomorrow. We think that's a
hidden gem and costume. Yes, it's become a bit of
a focal point for tourists. We don't we can go

(03:41):
wrong in the here the Horby Hub. Again, that's a
growing area. I think Selwyn's the fastest growing area in
New Zealand. So I think if we can be clever
and we can execute on a website, So if the website,
if we can execute well and have the Zelander's flocking
to that website, so I think we'll you know, I
could be proved wrong, but hopefully we can't go wrong,

(04:03):
then you'll be right.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Good on you mate.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Appreciate it very much, Simon Thwaites. A lot of people
like that silver Moon, the founder, the seller, the savior.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Maybe.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
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Speaker 1 (04:17):
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