It’s a Thursday afternoon at the Brunel shopping centre in Swindon. Flanked by a muffin stand and an injection-moulded child’s ride sits the Guardian Jewellery Company. Little more than a desk and a couple of stand-up banners, it forms an outpost for one of the recession’s few success stories.
Since forming a year ago, the firm has grown from two staff to 75, and is hiring at the rate of five a week. It sets up stalls in shopping centres of medium-sized towns – Basingstoke, High Wycombe, Worcester – and people come to sell their gold jewellery for cash. Guardian then melts the gold down and sells it on. There are 30 locations now, by the end of the summer that figure will be 80, and the firm has started advertising on TV. “We’re on an exponential curve,” says the sales director, Lee Bushell.
For investors, gold is a classic safe port in the storm of recession – John Paulson, for instance, the legendary hedge funder who won big after betting against sub-prime mortgages, recently bought a stake in a South African gold mine. Philip Klapwijk, chairman of the metals consultancy GFMS, believes the price could hit a record $1,100 an ounce this year, despite a recent dip in value. So, ordinary people can make a lot of cash, quickly and easily. “Beat the credit crunch!” suggest Guardian’s banners. A photo shows a hand holding a fan of £20 notes.
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