Southern Jewelry News
  • Featured
    • All
    • Featured
    • Featured Retailers
    • Retailer Roundtable
    • Sponsored Content
    • Supplier Spotlight
    CG Creations – in a league of their own
    Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key
    C.D. Peacock to open luxury watch and jewelry store next spring
    Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key
    Shefi continues expansion of bridal lines, fashion
    Why do diamond mines close?
    Why do diamond mines close?
  • Latest News
    • All
    • COVID-19
    • Furry Friends
    • Industry Awards
    • Industry Events
    • NRF
    • On The Move
    • Other News
    • Tradeshow News
    • Video
    • What's New
    Gemvision introduces MatrixGold® 3
    Gem-A spotlights gemstone research with latest edition of The Journal of Gemmology
    Artistry, Ltd. celebrating 40th anniversary
    IGI launches new interactive eLearning
  • Podcast
  • Columnists
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Effective Communication – Part III
    Kate’s star-studded style. What will the next trend be?
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Effective Communication – Part II
    Retailing in a post-PC world
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Communication
    The Retailer’s Perspective: With great power comes great fails
    The Retailer’s Perspective: I don’t want to be an expert anymore
    Sales Tips by Aleah: Everything is Sales
    The Retailer’s Perspective: With great power comes great fails
    The Retailer’s Perspective: Doom & Gloom or Boom & Bloom
  • Classifieds
  • Subscriptions
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Print Subscription
No Result
View All Result
Southern Jewelry News
  • Featured
    • All
    • Featured
    • Featured Retailers
    • Retailer Roundtable
    • Sponsored Content
    • Supplier Spotlight
    CG Creations – in a league of their own
    Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key
    C.D. Peacock to open luxury watch and jewelry store next spring
    Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key
    Shefi continues expansion of bridal lines, fashion
    Why do diamond mines close?
    Why do diamond mines close?
  • Latest News
    • All
    • COVID-19
    • Furry Friends
    • Industry Awards
    • Industry Events
    • NRF
    • On The Move
    • Other News
    • Tradeshow News
    • Video
    • What's New
    Gemvision introduces MatrixGold® 3
    Gem-A spotlights gemstone research with latest edition of The Journal of Gemmology
    Artistry, Ltd. celebrating 40th anniversary
    IGI launches new interactive eLearning
  • Podcast
  • Columnists
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Effective Communication – Part III
    Kate’s star-studded style. What will the next trend be?
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Effective Communication – Part II
    Retailing in a post-PC world
    Motivating your sales staff
    IAS Training’s Keys to Communication
    The Retailer’s Perspective: With great power comes great fails
    The Retailer’s Perspective: I don’t want to be an expert anymore
    Sales Tips by Aleah: Everything is Sales
    The Retailer’s Perspective: With great power comes great fails
    The Retailer’s Perspective: Doom & Gloom or Boom & Bloom
  • Classifieds
  • Subscriptions
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Print Subscription
No Result
View All Result
Southern Jewelry News
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured Articles

Joe Koen and Son Jewelers – family business thrives for 130 years

Amy Minnick by Amy Minnick
November 2, 2013
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Ask corporate CEO’s their opinion of families within a business and controversy ensues. Visions of public meltdowns and divisions within families fill their heads. But the fine jewelry industry beats to a different drum. Family businesses are common and longevity respected.

Just ask Brad Koen of Joe Koen and Son Jewelers, the oldest family-run business in Austin, Texas. As the fourth generation of Koen’s to operate the family business, Brad and his brother Bill live every day in a world created by their great grandfather. Just the name of their company garners respect and credibility earned through 130 years of continuous, successful business.

Koen-old-Nov
An early 1910s shot of Joe Koen and Son Jewelers on 6th St. in Austin, TX. Company founder Joe Koen is on the far right. Joe’s cousins are working behind the counter on the left.
“My great granddad Joe Koen was a Russian immigrant who, with 45 family and friends, landed in the US in 1881. He was 24. With watch jewels in his pocket he made his way through Staten Island and made his way to San Antonio where he’d been promised a job as a watchmaker. Along the way he stopped on the banks of the Colorado River in Austin and, according to one report, knelt down, kissed the ground and declared it so beautiful that he refused to go any further. That’s when he, and the rest of the group, decided to settle in Austin, Texas.”

Just two short years after landing in the USA, Joe Koen opened his own jewelry counter in a hotel drug store and began creating his own family heirloom. Passed from father to son for more than 130 years, Joe Koen Jewelers and Son has seen its share of strife.

“We’ve weathered two world wars, the Great Depression, the 2007 Recession and family disagreements, but through it all the relationships between the generations of this family have been critical to its longevity. My great grandfather’s motto was honesty and service to his fellow men and women. The concept of hate had no place in his world. We treat our employees like family and we know if everyone works hard we’ll all prosper.”

Brad’s logic is documented. According to Ann Kinkade, president of Family Enterprise USA: “Family firms have leadership tenure four to five times longer than shareholder-controlled businesses. They also have greater workforce stability and are more likely to hire and retain employees in the face of a tough economy.”

Koen-Brad-Bill-Nov
Brad (L) and Bill Koen are carrying on the Joe Koen and Son Jewelers tradition their great grandfather started 130 years ago
But family-owned companies are more than just inheritance. For Brad his family’s company allowed him the space and time to try on different ‘hats’ within the business until he found out what he wanted to do with his career.

“There wasn’t any pressure on me to go into the family business,” recalls Brad. “My older brother graduated from the University of Texas and went on to New York to obtain his GIA certification, so our family business was taken care of. But I struggled through life trying to figure out what I wanted to do until my family let me try different aspects within the business. I realized I wasn’t good at bookkeeping or bench work, but I was good at selling.”

Surely Joe Koen wanted to hand down something of value to his children when he realized a second generation would be carrying on the business, but allowing his great grandson the freedom to find his niche in life was a nice bonus.

Like their father before them, Bill and Brad are a part of the Texas Jewelers Association. In fact, Bill was president and Brad is vice president. They both love their job and they, like their father and grandfather before them, have learned to work well with family and continue a legacy of integrity.

Proof of that integrity lives on the walls of a hallway in their store. Called their ‘Hall of Fame,’ the walls are framed with thank you letters and certificates from their community for their philanthropy. From the Cancer Foundation to the local theatre, the Koen family has always participated in giving back to their community. 

“My great grandfather worked for 80 years in this store and each generation has come to realize what a gift it is to have industry veterans remember my dad, great granddad and my family. It makes me proud to carry on his legacy as the oldest family-run business in Austin and our longevity makes this industry another extension of our family.”

Congratulations Joe Koen and Son Jewelers on 130 years of running a successful fine jewelry business. Here’s hoping the fifth generation will continue the legacy.

Amy Minnick

Amy Minnick

Related Posts

CG Creations – in a league of their own

June 6, 2022
Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key

C.D. Peacock to open luxury watch and jewelry store next spring

June 1, 2022
Hubbell Proctor Designs: The Experience Is Key

Shefi continues expansion of bridal lines, fashion

June 1, 2022
Why do diamond mines close?

Why do diamond mines close?

June 1, 2022

Latest News

What's New

Gemvision introduces MatrixGold® 3

June 22, 2022
Columnists

IAS Training’s Keys to Effective Communication – Part III

June 22, 2022
Other News

Gem-A spotlights gemstone research with latest edition of The Journal of Gemmology

June 22, 2022

Other News

Artistry, Ltd. celebrating 40th anniversary

IGI launches new interactive eLearning

Jewelers Mutual Group names Mike Alexander COO

GN Diamond’s Free Marketing Tools Help Retailers All Year Long

Kate’s star-studded style. What will the next trend be?

JCK wraps 30th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas

Southern Jewelry News

© 2022 Southern Jewelry News.

Additional Information

  • About
  • 2022 Trade Shows
  • Media Kit
  • Contact

Get Social with Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Featured Articles
    • Featured
    • Featured Retailers
    • Retailer Roundtable
    • Supplier Spotlight
    • Sponsored Content
  • Latest News
    • What’s New
    • Industry Events
    • Tradeshow News
    • On The Move
    • Other News
    • Furry Friends
  • Columnists
  • Classifieds
  • Subscriptions
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Print Subscription

© 2022 Southern Jewelry News.