Chamilia chief development officer Michael Flaherty told Jeweller that the brand has identified Australia as a "prime market opportunity"
Chamilia establishes Australian subsidiary
2.3 k views | Posted June 14, 2011 |
By Lorna Goodyer
In an attempt to further strengthen its brand, US-based Chamilia has opened an Australian office as a wholly owned subsidiary of its American parent to push growth of the bead jewellery brand in Australia and New Zealand.
Chamilia chief development officer Michael Flaherty told Jeweller that the brand had identified Australia as a “prime market opportunity”, and wanted to take over the reins of distribution here.
“We’re really excited about the Australian market, so we’ve made the decision to open our own office, build our own team and begin working with the retailers directly,” Flaherty explained.
The company negotiated with its long-standing Australian distributor Arctic Wolf to retain “six or seven” of their key employees to work in the new office.
“We want [the Australian office] to be an empowered team of Australians,” said Flaherty, who flew in from the US last week to reveal Chamilia’s plans for the Australian market.
Chamilia has averaged 70 per cent growth annually for the past five years, and is aiming to become “a truly global brand”, according to Flaherty.
He said that as the brand has grown – it now has 5,000 retail points of sale worldwide – the company has become better equipped to enter markets directly.
Because the Australian office will now have the backing of Chamilia’s global resouces, Flaherty said the brand’s Australian retail stockists should “immediately see a higher level of service”, as well as more support in branding and merchandising.
Chamilia officially entered the Australian market directly on June 1.
> Read about more of Chamilia’s latest initiatives in the August issue of Jeweller magazine.
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