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thePeorian.com
W
hen Kevin Kelly
decided to open shop
in a small strip center
in north Peoria he put a sign out
front and hoped that and word-
of-mouth advertising would be
enough to bring in customers and
permit business growth.
It did, though in sort of a
roundabout way.
Because of his solid reputa-
tion in jewelry repair, forged
during nearly 40 years in the
business working mostly for
other jewelers, people came to his
store at 7501 N. University St. to
get bracelets, necklaces, watches
and other pieces repaired. What
they found was much more, as
Kevin Kelly Jewelers is now a
full-service jewelry store offering
elegant jewelry, including pieces
designed and created on-site.
“
I would say we are a one-stop
jewelry store. Anything a cus-
tomer needs, they can get here.
And customer service is what we
value the most,” said Dan Kelly,
the son of owners Kevin and
Maureen Kelly who manages the
technology part of the business.
“
We feel we are kind of a well-
kept secret. The first time here for
most people is when they come
in to get something repaired.
That makes sense since this store
started as a wholesale repair
shop. But once people see we’re
so much more, we hope they will
keep coming back. “That’s why
we pride ourselves on customer
service. We think we give as good
of customer service as any that’s
out there. We give the customer
what they want when they come
in the door, whether it’s getting
something repaired or something
for a wedding anniversary. We
want people to have a positive
experience when they come here.
We go the extra step to get them
back,” Dan Kelly said.
Besides turning the store into a
full-service jeweler, Kevin Kelly
said his boldest move was to
bring in jewelry designer Melissa
Barnhill and letting her create
designs that have since become
some of the prototypes used by a
jewelry design software compa-
ny. In fact, she was second in the
nation in terms of sales using that
software. “We believe our designs
are good as anyone’s out there,”
Kelly said.
Barnhill came to Kevin Kelly
Jewelers more than seven years
ago after working retail for a
jewelry store chain. With a grow-
ing family, she needed to change
because the hours she was ex-
pected to work at that mall-based
store “were a killer. I had to do
something to change that, but I
didn’t want to leave the jewelry
business.”
In Kevin Kelly she found
an employer willing to let her
Kevin Kelly, second from the right, opened Kevin Kelly Jewelers at 7501 N. University St. to give customers a one-stop
jewelry experience, from sales to jewelry repairs. His teams includes, from left, his son Dan, his wife Maureen and at
far right, jewelry designed Melissa Barnhill,
Specialty Retail: Jewelry
KEVIN KELLY: YOUR ONE-STOP JEWELER
Paul Gordon
