Jody Wainwright, Managing Director, Boodles

Jody is part of a family business that can chart its history back to a jewellery business founded in 1798, which was later to acquire Boodle and Dunthorne. The Boodles story begins in Leicester with a young man called Henry Wainwright. In 1878 he became apprenticed to his uncle, William Wainwright, who had a watchmaking business in Leicester. There, Henry learned the skills of the jewellery trade.

Henry Wainwright saw an opportunity in the city of Liverpool and worked as the manager of Kirk & Co, a prestigious jewellery firm at 7 Parker Street in Liverpool. Kirk & Co made chronometers for the Admiralty and sold jewellery designed for the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Henry became the owner of the firm’s Liverpool branch in 1898. When his sons Herbert and Harold joined him, the family business became known as H Wainwright & Sons.

In 1903, the family acquired Boodle and Dunthorne and opened Boodles House on the desirable corner of Lord Street and North John Street in Liverpool. This is still Head Office today.

Fast forward, and this family of jewellers has created memorable pieces from a wedding cake stand for HRH Queen Elizabeth II and a million-pound necklace featured in Channel 4 'Behind the Scenes' documentary. Boodles was awarded "British Luxury Brand of the Year" at one of the industry’s most prestigious award ceremonies, the Walpole British Luxury Award.