The plans of My Jewelery

My Jewelery started out as a jewelery brand in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. The brand is now internationally active and also has a fashion line. Within a year of opening the first Belgian store in Antwerp, stores in Mechelen, Ghent, Leuven and Bruges followed. Now it’s Germany’s turn. At the end of October or beginning of November, the brand will open a store in Cologne. FashionUnited spoke to Managing Director Sharon Hilgers about the new store, business performance in difficult times and future expansion plans.

How have the last few years been for My Jewellery?

The Corona period was of course a very unpredictable time and I think that is still the case today. There is inflation, recession, rising commodity prices and the lockdowns in China are still present. I have the impression that it has become the status quo that you have to deal with so many circumstances in your activities. We weathered the pandemic with a lot of determination, strength and daring – including opening stores. We’ve always tried to keep a dot on the horizon, but also to make conscious and well-considered decisions every day. In this context, it is also important to be able to switch quickly. We still carry this attitude with us today. We are simply well positioned as a brand, which of course also helps.

Last year you opened your first store in Belgium. How is this market doing at the moment and what are your future plans?

In Belgium, we had been online for a few years prior to the physical expansion and it was going well. Since we opened the physical stores, this line has been increasing even more. Trust, brand awareness and thus growth among Belgian consumers continue to increase.

We now have five stores in the larger cities there, and that suits our strategy. We don’t have to be represented in every city and we choose the cities where we want to be represented. Cities where there are many young women and where the mood is right. In Belgium, apart from perhaps Brussels and Hasselt, we are already pretty saturated. So the next step was to find out which country offered the next interesting market. Hence the move to Germany.

In Germany you chose Cologne, why?

I’ve visited several German cities, and in Cologne I particularly liked a certain part of the city (editor’s note: Ehrenstrasse). There was a nice mix of strong and creative concepts, local initiatives and cafés. I was very surprised. I also looked around in Düsseldorf, which I found a bit less creative. We really like the street we’re on now. In addition, we can look after Cologne well from our Dutch headquarters because of its location.

My Jewelery in Ghent. Photo: My Jewellery.

Can you already say something about what the store will look like?

In Ghent we opened a jewelry bar, a slightly smaller concept. We also have a slightly smaller building in Cologne, so that we can carry the Ghent idea to Cologne. The store will have My Jewelery’s iconic block island of trinkets, a concrete pole in the center of the store will showcase just-launched pieces, and of course we’ll also be hanging some clothing items on the sides of the store. But the focus is primarily on jewelry: our core business, with which we want to continue to grow in Germany.

What other plans do you have for the German market?

We now want to increase brand awareness and continue to establish the website that we launched last year. We are still learning a lot about German customers and how to market there. Of course, this is just the beginning, and it will be some time before we know what’s next. Who knows, maybe we still need to tweak the concept, there’s still a lot to learn. I think we will see the same growth as in the Netherlands. However, that takes years. The fact that we take our time is also in line with our organic way of working. We will work with an ambitious team to improve everything step by step. We also work with a team of German specialists at the Den Bosch location.

Do you have other markets in mind for international expansion?

Yes, we recently launched the French website. Our activities on Instagram and TikTok have already brought a number of French customers to the website. Although a physical store is not planned for the time being – we want to keep looking around and examine different markets for their potential and growth opportunities – we see France as a real accessory country as a market with great potential. A fortnight ago we were also at the Paris fashion fair Who’s Next, where we were able to win our first customers. So we’re making progress there, but like in Germany we’re doing everything at the right time. A physical store might be something for us in a year or two. You want the space to be a good fit, the organization to be ready and it just feels right. And sometimes that takes a little more time. By the way, I used to be a French teacher, so it’s kind of a dream of mine to open a French shop. That’s at the top of the wish list.

Aside from opening and expanding, what is My Jewelery currently doing?

With the team in Den Bosch we are constantly working on innovations in the broadest sense of the word. We will soon be moving to a new warehouse that is 5 times the size and that means a lot. We also want to make our supply chain more sustainable. Next year we want to produce twenty percent of our products more sustainably. This is especially true for clothing, because jewelry is already made from 60 percent recycled steel.

We also want to create more transparency. We’ve checked factories in the past, but now want to take a closer look at details like zippers and buttons. We want to map the entire chain in order to make a more sustainable choice if possible. However, in view of rising raw material and transport prices, this is a challenge that we have to tackle step by step. It is important that you remain proud of the company you stand for, even as the zeitgeist changes. In the fashion industry, sustainability and transparency should be high on the agenda, and so is ours.

As far as our growth in the Netherlands is concerned, there are still a few cities where a boutique could be interesting, for example in Middelburg in Zeeland. But above all, we want to enter into strategic partnerships with multi-brand stores. We don’t need to open hundreds of stores in the Netherlands, especially since online trading is so strong here. For us, the stores were primarily a service and contact point for customers and to present our brand. The goal is not to be visible in every shopping street and in every village. In terms of physical stores, I think we’re almost done in the Netherlands.

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My Jewelery in Ghent. Photo: My Jewellery.

What about the company’s sales and profit development?

I won’t give specific numbers, but we’ve had impressive growth. With all that is going on, it is a challenge for a company to keep costs under control because everything is becoming more expensive. You have to translate that into the sales prices and the business model, and like last year, it was a challenge to keep the balance without slowing down growth.

What future plans do you still have?

We want to make our entire chain more sustainable and stay at the forefront of technology and development. The optimal service for our customers is also an important pillar. Last summer we had some bottlenecks in the warehouse and then you see that you can’t always provide the service you want. When we were younger it had less of an impact. These are challenges we are constantly working on.

What is the ultimate dream for My Jewelery?

A shop in Paris.

This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.nl.

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