Blending tradition with innovation: Meiki Ngcengeni leads family jewelry business into a sparkling future

Stephen Grootes speaks to Meiki Ngcengeni, CEO of Isabella Design, about growing a jewellery business started with just R2000 into a full-scale design, refining, and recycling operation.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

Meiki Ngcengeni is the CEO of Isabella Design Jewellers & Refiners, a family-based jewelry and refinery company.

The business was started by her mother Isabella in 2008, who's responsible for the jewelry design.

Isabella Design Jewellers & Refiners recycled existing gold and other precious metals that are already in the market, and reproduce new pieces of jewelry. 

The 35-year-old Meiki only joined her mother in the jewelry business in 2012, having first earned a degree in Transport and Supply Chain Management.

But now with over 10 years of experience in the jewelry and precious metal industry, Meiki is focused on taking the business to the next level.

As the visionary leader of a family-run jewelry and refinery company, she is spearheading strategies that blend tradition with innovation, with a long-term vision of establishing Isabella Jewelers as a trusted brand in jewelry design, manufacturing, and the precious metal refining industry.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, she says the exposure to jewelry design during her years at a tertiary institution gave her the opportunity experience real life scenarios and the challenges of running a business.

"I had to sacrifice. It's something I had to maneuver my mind around it, and just think about as a bigger picture. Like, this could be generational, because that's her vision. She wanted to build a generational business. And me being part of it, playing a role of second generation, that makes me happy."

- Meiki Ngcengeni, CEO - Isabella Design Jewellers & Refiners

"It's also worth noting, that it's quite a male dominated industry. So if you're going to be just a woman sitting around a group of males, you really have to be sitting on tables, through networks. Otherwise it's going to be difficult to even raise your hand and showing that you're actually capable of running the business."

- Meiki Ngcengeni, CEO - Isabella Design Jewellers & Refiners

"If you don't have stakeholders, those engagements to build stakeholders it's really going to make business very difficult. It's important. You need to build networks. We continue to invest to grow those networks."

- Meiki Ngcengeni, CEO - Isabella Design Jewellers & Refiners

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.