Learning the ropes

Though of Italian descent, Vaccaro was born in France and moved to Canada with his family when he was barely four years old. Although his father initially worked in forestry, an accident forced him to give up his job. Refusing to go on welfare, he entered a government program that taught applicants skills in a new field. “For whatever reason, my dad chose jewellery polishing,” Vaccaro says. In fact, both his parents became polishers.

By the age of eight, Vaccaro had joined his dad at the bench, learning to polish. And although he enjoyed it, he had his heart set on being a cop. At 19, he applied to what was then the Metropolitan Toronto Police. Unable to meet the eyesight requirements, Vaccaro considered working as a polisher, but ultimately decided to become a diamond setter. After attending George Brown College, he got an apprenticeship at A & A Jewellers, where he honed his skills.

Ten years later, Vaccaro and his brother, Cosmo, felt it was time to get into the manufacturing game themselves. “But our parents didn’t think it was a good idea,” Vaccaro recalls. “They said that before we could become manufacturers, we had to understand what a retailer goes through.”

The brothers soon opened the doors to a store in Richmond Hill, offering a couple of watch brands and generic staples, such as Italian chains. Most of the work, however, was in custom design jewellery, which gave them a taste of what the future would hold.

“We did not like selling, but we loved manufacturing and were really good at it,” Vaccaro says.

Seventeen years later, Cosmo decided it was time the two start up their own manufacturing company. “My brother was younger, but he was the visionary. He was someone that believed whatever he did today was for tomorrow. One day, he said, ‘I’m going into manufacturing. Are you with me or not?’ I looked at him and said, ‘Okay.’ He said, ‘Good. Now you tell Mom.’ We always respected our parents and didn’t want to disappoint them.”

That was in 1999. With their parents’ blessing, the brothers opened the doors to Beverly Hills Jewellers. Cosmo oversaw the manufacturing end of the business, while Vaccaro handled sales and setting stones. In the evenings, he made the wood trays in which their jewellery was displayed. For every order that came in, both the jewellery and the trays, staining and all, had to be ready by the next morning.   

“We felt very strongly about making our own trays because it set us apart from others. If you buy a display from another supplier and put your product in it, you’re not recognized,” says Vaccaro.

In 2006, Cosmo passed away from meningitis. Vaccaro not only lost his brother, but his business partner. Coming back from that took a long time, he admits.

“It was very difficult for about eight months after I lost my brother,” Vaccaro says. “I knew if I did not start to focus where I needed to, this company would have not continued and that’s something my brother and I promised each other. We said we wanted it for our children. That was very important.”

Today, Vaccaro leads a team of more than 70 bench jewellers, casters, setters, polishers, and diamond engravers and a company with 1000 retailers across Canada.