Tiffany has stopped supplying its products to retailers links of london, but many jewelers are finding that the crisis has a silver lining.
What would you do if the entire contents of two display cases suddenly disappeared? That’s the question 265 former U.S. accounts of Tiffany & Co. are asking themselves Links of London Bangles. When Tiffany halted sales from its trade division eight months ago to focus on store development, it left a major void in the inventories of those 265 retailers, some of whom relied on Tiffany products for as much as 20% of their business Links of London Earrings. And jewelers miss the venerable blue box–the classic emblem of the Tiffany purchase.
But U.S. jewelers–and those in Europe, too, as of July–are learning to cope. “I’d prefer to sell the line, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” says Tim Greve, president of Carl Greve Jewelers in Portland, Ore., which sold Tiffany products for 14 years. “But the upside is that now I’m finding new business in different areas,” he adds.
Life after Tiffany. Jewelers suffering from Tiffany withdrawal have had two options: brand their own merchandise or pick up comparable lines Links of London Rings. Most jewelers have made a virtue of necessity and transformed the predicament into an opportunity to strengthen their store’s brand and identity or to offer unique–sometimes exclusive–products to their customers.