2016 Bullion Dealer of the Year – The Results

 
It turns out our David and Goliath heroes like a good challenge – and after what can only be described as relentless campaigning across every media available, Chard have once again beaten some of the largest bullion companies in Europe to take first place.

In what was an incredibly close call, Chard won with 2445 votes from 6425, taking 38.1% of the public vote – with Degussa AG owned Sharps Pixley only 0.8% behind.

Amazingly Chard were not the only family company in the medals – Sutton Coldfield’s Atkinsons Bullion placed 3rd with a very respectable 18.4% of the vote.

Chard’s customers are fiercely loyal and despite pressure from bigger companies with huge marketing budgets and aggressive discounting, Chard is continuing to expand thanks in a large part to their emphasis on customer care and education.

Company director Lawrence Chard says “We have probably done more than all other coin / bullion dealers to expand and create awareness of the UK gold bullion market since EU VAT exemption arrived in 1st January 2000” – truth be told whenever the Bullion.Directory team needs to check a fact, we’ll eschew Wikipedia and turn to one of Chard’s websites first.

Will Chard make it three in a row?   Shortlisting starts in September…

 
From being outside of the top 5 in 2015, Silver Gold Bull have essentially taken over a huge portion of the Canadian market share in the past year.

They’ve also seen aggressive expansion into the USA and now the lucrative United Arab Emirates market.

With 659 votes from 1440, Silver Gold Bull pushed international behemoths Kitco to second with Canadian Bullion Services taking third in a year that CBS launched their stunning new website.

Much like JM Bullion – and indeed UK winners Chard – Silver Gold Bull are actively promoting their services across all areas of the web, and are now embracing digital marketing further, through their adoption of the affiliate marketing model.

A clear indication that the future of successful precious metals retailing has to involve a strong digital strategy.

Will we see Silver Gold Bull in the US or UAE category for 2017?   Watch this space.

 
Admittedly our team have never been shy in expressing a love of ABC Refinery’s square cast bars – so it’s safe to say we feel sister company ABC Bullion are deserving winners of this first year’s vote.

Taking exactly a quarter of the Australian public vote, with 790 votes from 3160, ABC Bullion saw Digital Exchange of the Year 2016 winners Bullion Capital take 2nd place by the narrowest of margins – 50 votes

Digital exchange Citadel Bullion came a close third with 569 votes.

ABC Bullion may be part of the giant Pallion group – but despite this they are still somehow able to maintain the feeling of a small friendly bullion dealer and this must in part be responsible for their success.

With a new LBMA listing and an ever-growing array of precious services available across Australia, ABC Bullion look set to maintain and further strengthen their long-established position of real authority in the Australian precious metals market.

Did we mention we’re big fans of ABC’s square cast bars?

 
With “City of Gold” Dubai’s sights firmly set on becoming the global hub for physical gold trading – the region has become a centre of excellence in the refining of precious metals – and family-owned Kaloti are at the forefront of this movement.

The UAE category saw the strongest voting turnout overall, with Kaloti taking first place thanks to 2621 votes from the 6920 total.

Market giant Emirates Gold shared joint second place with brokers DHAB DMCC, part of the Swiss Bullion Group – with these three companies taking a combined 91.7% of the Emirati vote.

Kaloti’s success must in part be down to their broad depth of services covering every sector of the precious metals market, from mining to refining, minting and testing, to retail and wholesale bullion and jewellery sales – which together with 9 offices across 6 countries sees a lot of volume.

In winning this first UAE public vote, Kaloti have cemented their local-market reputation on the way to becoming a global brand.