Business: Ruwanpura Gems

Address: Naperville

Phone/website: 773-240-0761, www.ruwanpuragems.com

CEO: Arshed Aroos, 44, of Naperville

Years in business? 8

What does your business do? “Our buyers are dealers and wholesalers. We are one of the major suppliers. We supply gemstones. We import gemstones from Sri Lanka. Our main company is based in Sri Lanka. It’s been there more than 35 years,” Aroos said.

How do you find clients? “We exhibit in major gem shows such a JCK, which will be held in June in Las Vegas. And we also exhibit in GJX in Tucson (Arizona). … There will one (trade show) coming up in Singapore. We started last year participating in a new show in Denver.”

Where are your clients? “I base my business in Naperville, but most of my clients are from the East Coast and West Coast. … I do supply some clients in Illinois.”

How did you get into this business? “Sri Lanka has several minerals. One of them is gemstones. Sri Lanka is famous for sapphires, rubies, emeralds, precious and semi-precious stones. My uncle, my aunt, my father, my family were in the gold jewelry business. Then they transitioned to the gemstones. … We have grown big internationally.”

So you’ve done this for years? “Not my whole life. I came here as a student to study engineering at (the University of Illinois-Chicago). … I was working for Motorola. Then I joined AbbVie Pharmaceuticals as a contractor. After that, I thought it was time to transition into the business. I fell in love with (the) stones and I had a passion for it. I quit my job in September 2021 and do this full time.”

Why are gemstones so valuable? “They’re very rare, precious, hard to find.”

Plus, women love jewelry and men love giving women jewelry? “Exactly.”

What do you like best? “Buying rough stones and cutting them. That defines the value.”

Rough stones? “They’re like a rock. You sometimes cannot see what’s inside. Some you can. You buy it. You cut it. In cutting, you have to make sure which way you cut. How much light you can get inside by cutting different shapes? … It defines how much you can sell based on how much light refracts. … We have on-site gemologists, on-site cutters.

Do you sell diamonds? “No diamonds. Only colored stones. We do sapphires, rubies, emeralds, spinel and alexandrite, that’s a color-changing stone.

What’s the most popular gemstone? “Any stone can be popular.”

Where do you store your gemstones? “In a bank vault.”

Where do get your gemstones? “From the mines (in Sri Lanka). We have license to do that. We also have leased mines.”

How do the mines work? “You get a salary. You get your food while working. It’s a contract. You don’t have retirement or health benefits. … But, once you find a stone in there, we buy that from you. Used to be, we didn’t buy the stones from them. But there was lots of stealing. People hide the stones. So, we said, ‘Decide a price on the stone. You give us a price.’ A reasonable price for them and us. They let us know. We pay them. … You can work a whole year and sometimes find only one stone.”

What kind of prices are we talking? “Let’s say it’s a 100-carat stone. If it’s a good stone, you can say $500,000. … We also calculate how much effort we put into that. Our gemologist will look at it.”

Is there a busy time of year? “During the trade shows in February, June and September.”

What happens at a trade show? “Let’s say we have a booth. Only trade-related people come in. … If we don’t know them, we take an advance (payment), maybe $10,000. Once you send a wire transfer, we make sure it took.”

What misconceptions do people have? “We only deal with natural gemstones. There are lot of synthetics in the market. That is not good. When the synthetics come into play, people can’t identify them with their naked eye. But you can see if (you) look closely. Synthetic is (worth) nothing. Real is (worth) millions of dollars.”

How did the pandemic impact your business? “People were not going into the mines. The demand was huge. People had money during COVID, but the supply was lower. … For us, nobody was buying. … It was very tough. It’s getting better now.”

Any plans? “We want to exhibit in more trade shows. (And we want to) supply directly to major suppliers here in the U.S. so we can expand our business.”

What’s your advice for someone starting a business? “They should know what they’re getting into. … Finding the clients. Understanding their needs. That’s the crucial thing.”

Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.