Red Luxury buys US brand The M Jewelers

By

Céline VAUTARD

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jun 1, 2022

Red Luxury has made another bold move. At a time when the market for jewellery and watches is changing rapidly, the French group's objective is to disrupt its traditional structure by investing in directional and emerging brands. Hence the acquisition of a majority interest in US personalised jewellery brand The M Jewelers.

Pendants by The M Jewelers  

The M Jewelers was founded by Mark Shami in New York’s Diamond District in 2013. It pioneered the promotion of personalised jewellery on Instagram and became a segment leader, generating a revenue of $12 million (approximately €11.2 million) in 2021. Worn by many celebrities, among them Bella Hadid, the brand is very much on the rise, and opened a flagship store at 204 Mulberry Street in New York on January 8 2022. The new, 111 m2 store is fitted with black lighting fixtures and has a private viewing room where customers can personalize the jewellery they have bought. Since the opening, there are always 50 or so people waiting for their turn to enter the store on Saturdays.

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Red Luxury's goal is to double The M Jewelers’s revenue within two years, continuing to purse online growth but also expanding the brand’s retail footprint massively, by opening new stores in the USA and abroad, for example with concessions in Europe.

Red Luxury was founded by Romain Bénichou and David-Emmanuel Cohen in 2012. The group has a portfolio of licensing contracts with brands like Zadig & Voltaire, Christian Lacroix, Opex and Rochas. However, 70% of its current revenue is generated via its own jewellery brands - Ginette NY, Pamela Love, Reminiscence and Maison Montignac - whose products are designed, manufactured and distributed worldwide by Red Luxury itself. Driven by these brands’ growth, in 2022 Red Luxury expects to generate sales worth €40 million, and is targeting €100 million by 2027. The group is well-versed in e-commerce operations, and in 2022 it expects to produce 30% of its total revenue online.

As a result, Red Luxury is positioning itself as a major player in the industry, and is extremely keen to “wake up the sleeping beauties.” As an accelerator for specialised jewellery brands, the group is joining forces with emerging talents and designers to develop and promote their brands via an international, multi-channel network. Bénichou and Cohen believe in a balance between B2B and B2C operations, the latter both via physical and digital retail.

A strategy that is paying off for the brands the group has taken over. For example, since it was acquired by Red Luxury in 2017, Ginette NY has grown 300%. The same holds for Pamela Love, whose revenue has increased 500% since it was acquired in 2019. And Red Luxury is preparing to open a second Pamela Love store in Brooklyn, and the eighth Ginette NY store, in Strasbourg, France.