For Nabil Salama, being an Egyptian immigrant to Canada meant beginning a brand new life, and new alternatives. However like several newcomer, many steps alongside the best way had been fraught with uncertainty, reminiscent of language, tradition and funds.
Regardless of all of it, he remained bold, centered and decided, by no means letting naysayers or his circumstances cease his desires to excel within the jewelry business. His is a Canadian success story – a mannequin of accomplishment that teaches us that the sky’s the restrict. It’s additionally the story of Categorical Gold Refining, the little mom-and-pop enterprise that modified the panorama of the business in a really brief time.
Following within the footsteps of his grandfather earlier than, courting again to 1915 within the Jewellery District in downtown Cairo, Nabil desired to observe household custom in his newly-adopted nation.
And so, venturing within the treasured metals vendor and refiner enterprise, he arrange a small storefront in downtown Toronto in 1994. Nabil got here prepared and outfitted with the technical know-how gleaned from 5 many years within the business, and his eldest son Adel introduced within the enterprise and advertising dimension.
After all, it’s not straightforward to open a brand new enterprise from scratch, however equally not straightforward as a brand new Canadian. There was a language barrier and cultural variations. Luckily, Adel – who was schooled in Canada with a enterprise administration diploma – unfold the phrase by way of promoting, promotion, and gross sales, going retailer to retailer, getting the title out. His spouse Sandra took on an accounting function and back-office work. It was household serving to household.
Nonetheless, there have been preliminary challenges that appeared out of their management: the one predominant firm that was doing refining within the downtown core was taking 5 days to course of the supplies. Nabil grew to become pissed off, questioning: Why does a small jeweller have to attend for 5 days to get their cash, after they’re crunched for cash, or gold, to maintain going? Making a aggressive benefit within the market, Categorical Gold Refining determined early on to offer next-day service. Velocity and supply grew to become their signature entry into the market. And that is how the corporate’s title happened: Categorical Gold Refining.
Whereas rivals caught up, Categorical Gold Refining then upped the ante, with a “refine when you wait” service.
Nabil additionally found, sadly, that different refiners confirmed extra respect to profitable shoppers, and confirmed no courtesy to the “little man,” like himself. In gentle of this, he vowed that his personal enterprise ethic can be the other: everybody ought to get pleasure from the identical deference. Large or small transactions, each consumer is handled like gold. It’s that customer support that has translated to eighty p.c of shoppers coming in by way of referrals.
The enterprise grew; and so did their wants, necessitating a transfer to an even bigger showroom, at 21 Dundas Sq..
5 years after the opening, in 1999, Adel entered the clergy, leaving a gap for youngest son Atef to fill the void, and tackle each a managerial function and technological transformation. Atef graduated from the College of Toronto’s Masters of Engineering and Telecom, having labored at massive multinationals as Dash, AT&T, Scotiabank, IBM, and Cap Gemini, and Ernst & Younger. He got here in with the mindset to develop the corporate, impressed by the giants he was as soon as employed by.
The household continues to construct Categorical Gold Refining, with the intention to offer entry to all jewellers, of all sizes, the service anticipated from world-renowned refiners to the native jeweller and producer.
Along with their impeccable work ethic, their success can also be owed to conserving true to their motto: “Allow us to earn your belief.” With every transaction, shoppers know they’re getting their cash’s price, and what retains them sincere, in accordance with Atef, is that “we consider that we’re accountable to God in our dealings and our values.”
Nowhere is that extra evident than having grow to be a trusted associate of scores of jewellers, producers, wholesalers, pawnshops, refiners, treasured metals sellers and dental labs in Ontario, and even throughout North America.
By means of instance, Categorical Gold Refining solid a partnership in 2000 with Johnson Matthey – a worldwide treasured steel refining firm. Very quickly, the collaboration grew to become so trusted {and professional}, that Categorical Gold Refining grew to become Johnson Matthey’s most well-liked vendor in Canada. (Lately, Johnson Matthey was acquired by Asahi Treasured Metals and although the title has modified, the connection hasn’t, and Categorical Gold Refining carries all their merchandise and makes use of their assaying facility as a closing dedication of treasured metals content material.)
To offer more room for shoppers, and more room for technologically superior tools, in 2010, Categorical Gold Refining moved once more, this time buying a constructing at 215 Victoria Avenue, additionally downtown. There, they’ve a number of furnaces to soften any dimension of refining lot. Additionally they have put in a burning oven, on-premises, to burn polish mud and sweeps.
Additionally on-premises, a whole cutting-edge lab, with various sensitivity assay machine, together with an AA machine, and a microwave plasma atomic emission spectrometer.
All instructed the historical past of the Categorical Gold Refining, the family-owned enterprise, is an immigrant success story, considered one of dedication and imaginative and prescient — and persevering with to carve out a extremely revered place within the business.
