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Monday, 21st January 2008 (2954 views)

Top-end jewellers in Germany are enjoying booming sales as the country's luxury market expands, according to reports.

Georg Leicht of Pfrozheim-based Leicht Jewellers told Deutsche Welle (DW) that sales have continued to grow over the last ten years, fuelled by market prices that he says underlines gold's status as "something precious".

The international broadcaster states that Germany's jewellery and watch industry is worth 1.3 billion euros (£965 million) a year, with sales from luxury jewellery companies based in Pfrozheim, near the Black Forest, accounting for 70 per cent of the total.

Such is the prominence of the area in jewellery and watch making that it is nicknamed Goldstadt, or Golden City.

Exports count for around a third of Germany's jewellery business, the majority of which is sold in Europe. However, demand from countries like the United States and Japan is increasing.

Jewellery maker Wellendorff, which was founded in Pfrozheim in 1893, now sells half of its luxury exports to the US and Japan and the company's managing director Christian Wellendorff says turnover has increased by a quarter in the last year.

 

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