New branches of King’s Jewellery World and Homeline Furnishings Departmental Store were opened on Wednesday in Rose Hall Town, Berbice. The two stores are part of more than twenty other business units of the newly- built shopping mall at Lot 67 Rose Hall Town, Corentyne and were both launched at a cocktail reception attended by several members of the Berbice business community, Berbice Chamber officials as well as government officials.
King’s Jewellery World, after eight years of not having a presence in the Ancient County, has returned with its new and improved jewellery store after the big fire which destroyed the former store in Pitt Street, New Amsterdam.
Loknauth Persaud, Chief Executive Officer of King’s, in speaking to Stabroek News said he was delighted “to return [to Berbice] after eight years”. “After so many requests from people and our clients coming down to Georgetown, and every time they see me in Berbice they kept asking me when I was going to come back to Berbice”. He noted that the business space was offered to him by popular Canje furniture maker, Ayube Hamid, who, along with his wife, own the entire mall “and I think it’s a really nice, cozy area that we can put the store, so I took the opportunity to come back and re- introduce the standard, quality and style in Berbice…a thing that has been lacking for over eight years, whereby somebody might want to get a proper gift and have to come to town”. With King’s once again being present in the Berbice area, he is hoping persons can save time and “shop with more comfort and ease and be safe”.
According to Persaud, items in the store include brand- name goods such as Cross Pens, Movado watches, fashion and silver jewellery, diamonds, natural gem- stones, Serengeti and other brands of sunglasses. “As time goes, we are going to see the needs of the people and we are going to fulfill whatever they need”.
General Manager of Homeline Furnishings, Ayube Hamid, who constructed the mall, said there are 28 other stores in the building, including Mario’s Pizza, Church’s Chicken as well as clothing and other stores. He credited his son-in-law, David Razack “for being responsible for the building” and what it has become today “since he was the person who came in every day and nearly died …because he was shocked on the building”.
King’s Jewellery World patron, legendary cricketer, Clive Lloyd was also at the reception and spoke briefly. Lloyd said that all the cricketers in the world, especially those from the West Indies wear their jewellery “and Mr Persaud does not overprice his items…he is a very generous person and I am proud to say he is a friend of mine”.
The newly- created business enterprise in the mall represents “a renaissance—a rebirth of the entrepreneurial energy that exists in Berbice and in Rose Hall Town especially”. “We have the old chaps— the stalwarts, the Alim Shahs, the Balram Shanes, the Abdools and so on— this won’t put them out of business, far from; it is a hand-in-hand marriage, a relationship— that is what it is about and if this business prospers, people will go to the other neighbouring business and they will prosper and all of us gain for that”, said Director of the University of Guyana Berbice Campus, Daizal R. Samad
