February 2008
Wolf Designs Relocates to West L.A.
Wolf Designs, has relocated its corporate office and West Coast Design Studio to West Los Angeles as of Feb. 1.
Construction was recently completed on Wolf’s airy and contemporary office space centrally located in a semi-industrial area off the 405 Freeway, at 2233 Barry Avenue, between Barrington and Federal Avenues in West Los Angeles.
“It’s been a particularly trying time for those of us who work and live in Malibu with all the wild fires, floods, rock slides, and roadstead closures on Pacific Coast Highway, the main artery into downtown Malibu,” said president Simon P. Wolf, V. “Since the majority of my 30-plus staff live on the Westside—from Santa Monica to Culver City and points east and west, I felt it was duration to move the team to a more central and accessible location.”
The company has been based in Malibu since 1992.
Red brick walls, made bright concrete floors, exposed pipe ceilings, and undissembling prostrate plan, Wolf Designs’ new home marks a new era for the 174-year-old brand which manufactures genuine leather full-size and travel-size jewelry cases, leather accessories for women, technical watch rotators, men’s accessories, and private label programs for retailers.
Founded in 1834 by Philip Wolf in Hanau, Germany, Wolf Designs maintains executive offices and showrooms in New York, London, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.
Movado to reduce U.S. wholesale distribution
Movado to reduce U.S. wholesale distribution
February 26, 2008
Paramus, N.J.—The Movado Group expects to streamline its Movado brand U.S. wholesale distribution by 35 percent—from 4,000 doors to approximately 2,600 doors—by Jan. 31, 2009, the gang announced yesterday.
The closing of these least productive stores represents approximately $10 million of Movado brand sales, or less than 5 percent of the overall brand’s revenue and less than 2 percent of Movado Group’s consolidated revenue.
The company says it will continue to partner with retailers that it believes will support and enhance the Movado brand image and strategy.
This decision is part of the company’s new unified strategy to leverage the strength of the Movado brand across all distribution channels by uniting the areas of product development, merchandising and marketing across the company’s wholesale and retail channels. The company says it intends to optimize its wholesale distribution network and enhance the performance of its Movado boutiques to give to the brand’s long-term growth.
“Managing our brand proactively, we believe there are significant opportunities to put in harness the power of Movado across quite channels of distribution and to build on the aspirational nature of the brand,” Movado President and Chief Executive Officer Efraim Grinberg said in a media release. “We developed this comprehensive strategy following a thorough calculus of our brand, our retail customers and our end-consumers. While we are cognizant of the housekeeping environment in which we currently operate, we continue to take a long-term view of our business. We believe that by taking action now, it will grant leave to us enhanced opportunities to produce strong sustained growth in the future.”
The company has also updated its guidance for the year ended Jan. 31, 2008, based on its new brand strategy and the weak macroeconomic environment.
On a GAAP basis, Movado Group projects fiscal 2008 net sales will be approximately $559 million, which includes approximately $31 million of excess discontinued product sales. The company’s updated sales guidance includes the effects of lower holiday replenishment sales and a one-time accrual of $15 million for product returns associated with the company’s closing of certain wholesale doors.
Excluding the aforementioned discontinued product sales and accrual for product returns, fiscal 2008 net sales are projected to be approximately $543 million, compared with the company’s previous guidance for net sales of approximately $560 million.
Movado Group projects fiscal 2009 net sales will be in the range of $555 million to $565 million. This guidance reflects management’s expectation of a continuing weak macroeconomic environment. It also includes an approximate $0.20 per fully diluted share negative impact related to expected wholesale door closings, certain expenses related to the company’s ERP implementation and severance costs to be completed as part of the house’s Movado brand strategy.
Movado Group Inc. designs, manufactures and distributes Movado, Ebel, Concord, ESQ, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture and Lacoste watches worldwide, and operates Movado boutiques and company stores in the United States.
For more information about Movado, visit its Web site, Movadogroupinc.com.
JVC to Hold Free Seminars in Four Cities
The Jewelers Vigilance Committee is presenting “Legal Compliance is NOT Optional” education seminar series in four East Coast cities.
The free seminars will run from 8 a.m. money-drawer 10 a.m. and will be held at the following dates and locations:
* Boston, March 25, Hyatt Harborside, 101 Harborside Drive;
* Providence, March 26, Westin Providence, One W. Exchange St.;
* Philadelphia, March 27, Lowes Philadelphia Hotel, 1200 Market St.; and
* New York City, March 28, GIA New York Campus, 270 Madison Ave. (39th St. and Madison Ave.).
JVC said it selected these cities based on the large number of jewelry retailers and suppliers doing business in these areas.
In 2006, JVC developed and launched “Legal Compliance is NOT Optional” to educate jewelers about the legal regulations regarding how they do business. To date, JVC has presented its seminar series in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Seattle. The 2006, 2007, and 2008 seminars are sponsored by a admit from the JCK Industry Fund.
The seminars, presented by Cecilia L. Gardner, JVC’s president, chief executive officer, and general counsel and Suzan R. Flamm, assistant general officer counsel, offer practical “how to” actions many jewelers may need to follow legal compliance regulations—including how to comply with anti-money laundering regulations pertaining to the USA PATRIOT Act. Seminar content be able to help to demystify government regulations for jewelers.
“Government regulations for the jewelry industry have gotten tougher," Gardner said. "It is of high standing that retailers, manufacturers, and distributors who sell fine jewelry know their legal obligations. JVC’s goal is to help jewelers doing business in the U.S. understand the legal regulations pertaining to the manufacture, sale and advertising of fine jewelry."
JVC’s “Legal Compliance is NOT Optional” seminar will include important AML legal compliance information.
JVC seminars are free of charge but registration is required. To registrar, visit JVC’s Web site; email jvc@redjewel.com; fax: 310-734-1636; or call JVC at 212-997-2002.
Damiani Store in Milan Robbed
Anywhere from four to seven men robbed a Damiani showroom in Milan Sunday morning, by digging a tunnel through the wall, and made off with millions of dollars worth of jewels, according to media reports. At the time of the robbery, the owners of the luxury jewelry chain were in Los Angeles attending the Academy Awards ceremony and the parties associated with the annual awards.
The value of jewelry stolen at the jeweler’s showroom in Corso Magenta is being estimated anywhere from $7.5 million to $30 million, according to various media reports. Damiani S.p.A., the parent company of the Damiani Group, released a brief statement Monday saying that it was to soon to determine what was stolen and its value. The company added that the jewelry is "totally covered" by Allianz and Lloyd’s of London.
The gang had exhausted more than a month digging a tunnel from a disused cellar in an adjoining building, the Times of London reports. Police said that the drilling had been heard for weeks but was presumed to be part of construction that the building was undergoing. The four thieves were dressed in balaclavas, sunglasses, and fake uniforms of the Guardia di Finanza and used an internal staircase to ruse the first floor, thus avoiding alarms and video surveillance cameras.
The showroom had been opened for a confidential viewing by wealthy clients and there were five employees inside, including a cleaning lady and a member of the catering staff, as well as the manager, the newspaper reports. The thieves said they were there to check the accounts, then overpowered the staff, tied them up with electrical cable, sealed their mouths with tape and locked them in the washroom. They then helped themselves to jewelry from the safe-deposit boxes and left the way they had come.
Police said the robbery, which reportedly took place around 10:30 a.m., had taken about 40 minutes.
Investigators said that they were looking into whether the robbers had had “inside assistance” that had helped them to avoid the alarms and surveillance cameras, the Times reports.
Some of the compact’s most valuable jewels were not in the store at the time of the raid because they were being shown at the Presidential Suite of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, where Damiani hosted an Oscar party.
Guido Damiani, one of the three family members that run the company, said that he was “very shaken” by news of the raid, but added that he was relieved that no one had been hurt. Police said that the thieves had not used weapons to threaten the employees and may not even have been armed, the newspaper reports.
Staff at Damiani said that the leader of the gang had a “southern Italian” stress, the newspaper reports. The stolen pieces of diamond-studded gold jewelry included necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings.
Movado Group to Trim U.S. Distribution 35%
The Movado Group, the upscale watchmaker, said Monday it will reduce U.S. wholesale distribution of Movado, its largest watch brand, by 35 percent by Jan. 31, 2009, from 4,000 stores now down to about 2,600.
The streamlining is part of a new “unified brand strategy” to take Movado to “a new proportion of performance, assuring long term health and growth,” Efraim Grinberg, Movado Group president and chief executory officer (pictured), in a follow-up conference call with financial analysts adhering Tuesday. Movado is the “dominant” Swiss watch in the $500 to $1,500 retail category in the U.S. market, he said, sold in Movado boutiques, jewelry stores, and department stores.
The Movado Group has also reduced it projected sales results for fiscal 2008 (ended Jan. 31), citing a “weak” 2007 holiday season sales results, the new brand strategy, and “a weak macroeconomic environment.”
Movado Group, Inc., Paramus, N.J., designs, manufactures, and distributes Movado watches worldwide, as well as Ebel, Concord, ESQ, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, and Lacoste watches. It also operates 30 Movado boutiques and company stores in the United States.
The 1,400 “least productive” outlets to be eliminated represents about $10 million of Movado brand sales, less than five percent of overall brand revenue, and two percent of the Group’s consolidated revenue. The company announcement said it will “continue to colleague through retailers it believes will support and enhance the Movado brand image and strategy.”
The downsizing is part of a new “unified strategy to leverage the strength of the Movado brand across the whole of distribution channels” and consolidate its product development, merchandising, and marketing across its wholesale and retail channels, according to the company.
“Taking this decisive action now, will allow us enhanced opportunities to generate strong sustained growth in the future,” Grinberg related.
"Managing our stain proactively, we believe there are significant opportunities to harness the power of Movado across all channels of distribution and to erect on the aspirational nature of the brand.
“This comprehensive strategy,” he said, was developed over the past several months through a thorough analysis of the brand and its opportunities, extensive customer research, and its end-consumers.”
The Movado Group also said it has changed its preliminary fiscal 2008 sales estimate to $543 million, down from $560 million, citing the new brand strategy, the effects of “lower holiday replenishment,” “a weak macroeconomic environment,” which it sees continuing into the next fiscal year. That excludes $31 million of excess discontinued product sales and a one-time accrual of $15 million for product returns associated with the wholesale door closings. The company will announce its fourth quarter and fiscal 2008 results on March 27.
The company also said it expects 2009 full-year sales to be between $555 million to $565 million.
Rick Cote, executive vice president and chief operating officer, added that, "We believe now is the opportune space of time to farther invest in our business and better position Movado for long-term growth.” Despite the “uncertain consumer spending environment,” the company has the “financial strength and flexibility to successfully implement” its new brand tactics.
He said the company has “adjusted gross margins in excess of 63 percent (excluding discontinued product sales and the accrual for product returns), exceptional cash flow generation and a strong cash position in excess of $160 million at year-end."
EDiamondselect brings industry veteran on board
EDiamondselect brings industry veteran on board
February 25, 2008
 |
| An industry veteran with more than 30 years’ experience, David Norman is eDiamondselect’s new vice president of sales and marketing. |
Hollywood, Fla.—Diamond software assembly eDiamondselect has hired a new vice president of sales and marketing in anticipation of a major expansion in the marketplace.
David R. Norman, who worked for 23 years at 44-store chain Fox’s Jewelers and helped launch eDiamondselect in 2005, started with Hollywood, Fla.-based eDiamondselect on Feb. 18.
EDiamondselect President Marc Plotkin said it was the right time for Norman, who had been working as a consultant for the company, to join them full time.
“We are excited to have someone with his caliber of experience and track record of success to lead our sales and marketing exertion and help us take eDiamondselect to the next level,” Plotkin said in a media release.
Norman said his top priority is to increase sales and marketing presentations to potential leading retail partners, as the company’s 132 patents are coming end and the site is busy lining up new investors.
EDiamondselect already is partnering with Ben Bridge Jeweler, Devon’s, Lee Michaels and R.F. Moeller, is in talks with “several other major companies” and plans to be at JCK Las Vegas, he said.
“My goal is to talk to as many people as possible and demonstrate wherefore eDiamondselect is the good in the highest degree new sales tool a jeweler be possible to have right now,” Norman said. “It’s time for the retail jeweler to conduct loose-diamond sales back into their stores. Every jeweler that signs upon the body sees the potential of the system and calls it a ‘no-brainer.’”
Norman’s career in the jewelry industry has spanned more than 30 years.
In joining to serving as executive vice president of merchandising and marketing at Fox’s, his resume includes: vice president of merchandising and marketing at 100-store Reeds Jewelers, executive vice president of marketing for Ijewelry.com and consulting with 100-store Crescent Jewelers to develop a Hispanic division.
For the last four years, he ran his hold industry consulting business, Retail Jewelry Consultants.
Statement necklaces steal show at Oscars
Statement necklaces steal show at Oscars
February 25, 2008
 |
| Actress Keri Russell in H. Stern’s vintage diamond floral necklace and diamond floral earrings at the 80th annual Academy Awards. |
Los Angeles—Crimson gowns and showy jewelry ruled the red carpet at the 80th annual Academy Awards last night, firing up an otherwise lackluster fashion parade.
The diamond statement necklace showed a tremendous resurgence, with many of Hollywood’s leading ladies draping their necks in diamonds and colored stones.
Most notable was Nicole Kidman, who absolutely glittered from neck to waist in a rough- and polished-diamond Sautoir necklace by L’Wren Scott showcasing 7,645 diamonds totaling nearly 1,400 carats.
Marion Cotillard, Best Actress winner for La Vie En Rose, chose Chopard’s 64-carat champagne-diamond necklace and 106-carat brown-diamond necklace to put the ictus on one of the most original gowns of the evening: a white-and-gold mermaid-style gown from Jean Paul Gaultier. She also wore Chopard’s 15-carat brilliant-cut diamond ring.
Keri Russell, also in a light-colored gown, played up its strapless neckline with H. Stern’s vintage diamond floral necklace (taken from the private vault of Hans Stern) and dainty diamond floral earrings.
And Best Actress nominee Julie Christie sported a custom pink scarab necklace to highlight her knee-length ruched coral-red dress. Crafted by Neil Lane, the necklace is a symbol of long life and has 31 iridescent scarab gems.
Jennifer Garner, dressed in Oscar de la Renta, chose multiple jewelry looks: a Van Cleef and Arpels 1928 Art Deco diamond necklace, “Swan Lake” diamond drop earrings, a 1925 Art Deco diamond bracelet and “Clea” diamond ring.
Penelope Cruz followed suit, accentuating her dark blue Chanel Haute Couture gown with Chopard’s ruby and diamond drop earrings, fancy-shaped diamond bracelet and marquise-cut diamond circle.
 |
| Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard in long, layered diamond necklaces by Chopard. |
Helen Mirren enhanced her red George Chakra gown with sleeves studded in Swarovski crystals with H. Stern’s diamond “Hebe” earrings and diamond floral ring, while Jennifer Hudson sparkled in diamond chandelier earrings, diamond bangles and cuff, diamond “Ball” ring and diamond floral hairpins all by Neil Lane.
Jessica Alba took the yellow route, choosing to wear yellow gold and diamond “Creole” hoop earrings by Cartier. She also wore Cartier’s diamond shell-motif bracelet and diamond feather-motif bracelet.
When it came to Hollywood’s leading men, cuff links and watches were the accessories du jour. Johnny Depp opted to wear Neil Lane’s gentleman cuff links in rough diamonds and platinum, while Steve Carrell sported both trends in Chopard’s L.U.C. watch set in white gold with black alligator strap and white gold “Happy Diamond” cuff links.
Patrick Dempsey wore rock crystal, onyx and diamond cuff links by Fred Leighton.
SHO jewelry hits London runway
SHO jewelry hits London runway
February 25, 2008
 |
| A model at the Steve J and Yoni P runway show at London Fashion Week dons a bold look from SHO Fine Jewellery. |
London—SHO Fine Jewellery made its London Fashion Week debut this season, with models at the runway guide of designer duo Steve J and Yoni P sporting bold, Swarovski crystal-studded designs from SHO designer Sarah Ho.
After Steve J and Yoni P saw pieces Ho had designed for Swarovski’s “Runway Rocks” collection, every exhibition of jewelry from 16 jewelry and fashion designers commissioned to create their ultimate vision for catwalk jewelry, the pair were so impressed with Ho’s unique and modern style that they asked her to create a collection to accessorize their Fall/Winter 2008 show.
The resulting limited-edition jewelry collection, which is composed of oversized rings and circular disk earrings that interlock with chains to join large matching pendants, was inspired by crop circles—the sometimes geometric, sometimes abstract patterns formed by the flattening of crops, which, in urban-legend fashion, have frequently been attributed to otherworldly sources.
Swarovski is sponsoring the SHO collection, with pieces all in yellow gold and inlaid by jet-black crystals from Swarovski.
The collection is available for purchase from United Kingdom-based retailer Kabiri, Kabiri.co.uk.