A family business celebrating its 100-year anniversary is getting a new lease on life with a new owner — a member of the fourth generation.
And the 29-year-old great-granddaughter of Henry B. Ball said it was important to honor her family’s jewelry history — and her recently retired 91-year-old grandmother — while overhauling the Akron business.
Lisa Ball Ponder completely gutted and renovated the store on West Market Street in Pilgrim Square of its 40-year-old decor.
Ponder also updated the merchandise. While customers can still come in and buy fine jewelry and design a custom-made bridal set, they can also buy a $3 greeting card or fashion jewelry as low as $22 for a bracelet.
“In this day and age, the customers are pairing high end with low end. We want to tap into that,” she said. She also has a line of spa products and other gifts.
“Over the last few years, we’ve lost our connection with the next generation. I want to reach my generation,” Ponder said.
Ponder estimates she’s spent close to $100,000 on renovations and products.
The store at 2291 W. Market St. had a soft opening this week and will celebrate with an official grand opening from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Along the way, she’s had her grandmother’s sage counsel.
Mary Ball Gorman retired in August after nearly 70 years as a jeweler and running the family business as a single mother of six since 1971 when her first husband, Walter “Skip” Henry Ball, died.
She remarried, but her second husband had his own business. Gorman said she didn’t think much about retiring, though in recent years health issues have slowed her down.
Similarly, Ponder hadn’t thought about taking over the family business until late last year when she heard an off-hand remark about the business being on its last legs during Christmas dinner.
“It just triggered this inside of me to take on this honor,” Ponder said.
Plan moves quickly
Ponder and her husband spent the next few months quietly planning, with the goal of presenting their plan to the family this Christmas. But their plans sped up in May when family members found out Ponder, who was working for a company that ran six Pandora jewelry stores, wanted to move to Akron from her native Orlando.
By the end of August, the store had closed for what would be a three-month “renovation” and Ponder had moved in with her “Nana” while her husband, Scott, and 1-year-old daughter, Spencer, stayed in Orlando. They just joined her this week.
Ponder used the “housemate” opportunity to pick up on her grandmother’s wisdom.
“She’s still sharp as a tack and we’d talk price points,” Ponder said.
Ponder has big shoes to follow.
“She paved the way in this industry,” Ponder said of her grandmother, who joined the family business in 1948 at age 24 when she married Walter “Skip” Henry Ball, the son of the founder. The couple were the first certified gemologist couple in the U.S., according to the family.
“She was an authority. The GIA (Gemological Institute of America) would come to her.”
Ponder recalls stories told by her grandmother of going to Tanzania to the Tanzanite mines or Burma for rubies. Gorman said she was used to being the “one female and all males” among jewelers.
“You kinda had the field to yourself,” she said.
Ponder did her homework before deciding to buy the business and knew she had to change the store and its contents, which used to rely on sales of fine jewelry, silver, crystal and china. But brides don’t buy crystal and china anymore, she said.
“We’d get people in for that most important thing — their wedding — and couldn’t get them to come back because nothing on our shelves was appealing to them,” said Ponder.
Store gets new look
To update the decor, Ponder added a granite countertop cabinet and ditched the pink paint that had been on the wall for four decades. The pink matched the electric green shag carpet — Gorman’s favorite colors — that was replaced last year.
She also brought in a new point-of-sale system, replacing a cash register and hand-written receipts. The only records of former customers were about 20 to 30 years old, Ponder said.
She has launched a new website for e-commerce business and updated a Facebook page. Two family members — Barbara Ball Musci and Tom Ball — will be among Ponder’s seven employees. Both are children of Gorman.
“She’s now setting out on the newer frontier,” said Musci. “She has all the attributes to run the business. It’s a dream come true for Mom.”
Gorman said she’s got confidence in her granddaughter.
“I think it’s going to be smashing,” she said.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com.