By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, 27.08.2012 (Sydney Morning Herald): Andrew Sampson launched Rings of Melbourne in 2009 as a counter to the imported jewellery flooding the retail sector.
“The consumer has no choice but to buy the imported product, which is inferior in quality compared with the locally made ones. It is pushing designers and manufacturers like me out of business,” says Sampson, who has worked in the industry for the past 25 years.
Passionate about Australian-made products, Sampson says the country is “losing an entire generation of skilled [craftspeople] because they can’t compete with cheap imports. For our jewellers and goldsmiths to survive, we need handcrafted pieces, made here in Australia, back on the shelves.”