Bradenton business owner changes biz model to fit times

On a mountaintop in Colorado, Bradenton native Justin Weinkle, 31, knelt and proposed to his girlfriend, Meric.

But Weinkle wasn’t nervous. He knew he had found the right girl and had confidence she would be overwhelmed by his engagement ring surprise — a three-carat, round, brilliant cut diamond, with two baguette diamonds on either side and a matching eternity band, all set in platinum.

In the end, she said “yes,” but the awe on her face when she saw the ring Weinkle credits to a man from Bradenton named Tom Seguin.

“My parents have been long-time customers of Mr. Seguin,” said Weinkle, whose mother, Dr. Susan Weinkle, is a Bradenton dermatologist and whose father, Dr. Dana Weinkle, is a Bradenton ophthalmologist. “He was recommended to me through them. So, when it came time to make a special ring for my engagement to Meric, I wouldn’t think of going anywhere else.”

Seguin has, apparently, earned the trust of many in Bradenton.

One of roughly 50 master gemologist appraisers in the nation, Seguin has sustained his business, Suncoast Gems, for 31 years in Manatee County, the last 16 years at 4016 Cortez Road West, Bradenton.

But Seguin is changing his business model to fit the times.

For 31 years, customers have been able to walk into Suncoast Gems during store hours and buy rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings Seguin has in cases, but Seguin says that with the Internet, people are going online to buy jewelry these days.

Seguin, who will turn 62 in a few weeks, has decided to move out of his Cortez Road location on Dec. 31 and move into a smaller store space in the Ivy Building on Old Main Street, near O’bricks Pub, where he will continue other aspects of his trade by appointment only.

“Our industry is changing,” Seguin said Sunday as he prepared for the finale of a four-day “closing our doors” sale on Cortez where Seguin and his wife, Donna, are selling off their entire walk-in trade inventory from 30 to 70 percent off.

“In the U.S. last year, 1,500 jewelry stores went out of business,” Seguin added. “People go into jewelry stores and pick out what they want and then buy it online.”

While Suncoast Gems will no longer carry what is known in the trade as “live pieces,” the store will continue to take appointments to do the kind of custom design that Weinkle wanted, along with appraisals for estates, replacement values for insurance, divorce distribution estimates and replacement for lost or stolen jewelry, Tom Seguin said.

The Seguins are liquidating their inventory.

On Sunday, Suncoast Gems had everything from a $50 garnet stone ring in stainless steel to a $19,000 pair of four-carat diamond stud earrings, which had been marked down from $29,250.

The Seguins had sold 30 percent of their inventory from Thursday to Sunday, Tom Seguin said.

“We still have a good selection,” Donna Seguin said.

The couple expects to continue to sell off the entire inventory and furniture, showcases and even vaults by Dec. 31. Even the second-floor condo is for sale.

A strong run by a goal-setter

At age 18, Tom Seguin came to Manatee County with his sister and brother-in-law and began as a bricklayer’s apprentice and a laborer.

Realizing that his body would soon wear out, he switched to waiter and did that for 10 years at some of the area’s top dining spots, including the Colombia Restaurant on St. Armands, Euphemia Haye Restaurant on Longboat Key and The Sawmill Inn in Sarasota.

“I’m a people person and I just enjoy interacting with people,” Seguin said.

A chance meeting with Tom Horvath, a gemologist from the east coast of Florida, spun Seguin around.

“I started buying and selling gem stones and was amazed that you can have things this big that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Seguin said.

As his business grew in Bradenton, Seguin moved from 14th Street West, where he spent 15 years, to Cortez Road. During that time, his reputation also grew.

“I met Tom 25 years ago when I lost my diamond out of my ring in a Publix Supermarket,” said Sarasota customer Marilyn Chapman, who volunteered Sunday to help the Seguins wait on customers. “State Farm sent me to Bradenton to Tom to replace the diamond because they had confidence in his integrity and ability.”

During his career, Seguin has been flown by an insurance company to a location where he was asked to evaluate what was supposed to be a billion dollars worth of rubies. A client in Miami sent his private jet to Sarasota so Seguin could look at three rings he wanted to buy for his wife for their 50th anniversary.

Tom and Donna Seguin could retire. But they like being part of Bradenton’s growing business community, and Tom Seguin doesn’t like getting beat by anything, especially the Internet.

“You can’t have jewelry appraised on the Internet,” Tom Seguin said. “You may be able to have a piece of jewelry custom designed, but if you want to remount your diamonds into a new design, you can’t do that online because someone has to physically measure all those little diamonds and know what will fit into the jewelry. So, this is what we are going to do in downtown Bradenton, hopefully for many years to come.”

Suncoast Gems will remain open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday until Dec. 31 or until the inventory is gone. Information: (941) 756-8787.

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Bradenton business owner changes biz model to fit times."