Peninsula has helped us. I would absolutely recommend Peninsula to other businesses

This family-owned watch and jewellery repair business operated for many years out of Sears Canada stores under the name Sears Watch & Jewellery Repair.

When the retail giant went bankrupt in 2018 and shut its stores in Canada, this business rebranded itself as Fast Time Watch and Jewellery Repair. It expanded to malls and set up small boutique kiosks.

At present, Fast Time Watch and Jewellery Repair has 11 locations across Ontario.

“We’ve been in the business for over 40 years now,” says Milon Talsania, VP of operations. The company was started by his parents in 1979. At that time, it was called Far East Watch Cases Ltd.

“We do watch and jewellery repair. We also sell merchandise such as jewellery and various nationally branded watches,” says Milon. The business has close to 50 employees, including seasonal, part-time staff.

Fast Time Watch and Jewellery Repair has been a Peninsula client since early 2018.

When Fast Time set up its own retail locations across Ontario, it needed to update its contracts and handbooks.

“Peninsula’s guidance has been very key to updating our manuals,” says Milon.

“Other than that, we’ve found Peninsula to be helpful with day-to-day HR issues and general questions. The rules are changing all the time, so it is important that we stay on top of things,” he says.

Milon says he started by using Peninsula’s services for basic HR stuff such as manuals. But over time, he has come to trust and rely on the expertise of Peninsula’s HR professionals for all HR matters, big or small.

“I’ve found Peninsula to be very supportive and empathetic to the challenges we have faced, especially during COVID-19,” he says. “That’s why we remain loyal to Peninsula.”

COVID-19

“In our business, we don’t have an e-commerce setup,” explains Milon. “We’re in the malls or brick-and-mortar stores. It is watch and jewellery repair and it can’t be done online. That was a huge challenge.”

The company had to temporarily close its stores as per government directives following the outbreak of the pandemic. Milon says it was a very stressful period.

“Peninsula guided us every step of the way. Whether it be keeping up with the changing rules and guidelines or dealing with work refusals. They helped us with the health and safety measures that we needed to implement to keep our staff safe as well,” he says.