Duchess doing Canadians a solid
Jean-Christophe Bedos is on a mission to modernize Birks.
As the president and chief executive officer of the 139-year-old Canadian jewelry company, he’s attempting to reinvigorate the storied Quebec-based company. Throughout his past six years with the retailer, Bedos, who boasts a long history with the French jewelry purveyors Boucheron and Cartier, has overseen the introduction of more youthful, “eccentric” and affordable offerings including the Muse Ribbon, Bee Chic and Rock & Pearl collections.
“There’s no reason to believe that, because it’s called luxury, it should be unaffordable or exclusive,” he says of the changing perspective. “These years are gone.”
Adding new luxury brands into the Birks portfolio, while also updating current retail stores for the company and becoming the first luxury retailer in Canada to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment via BitPay, he says his mission is to entice younger customers to consider the company when shopping for chic accoutrements — before they opt for any other international competitors.
Visiting Vancouver in early December to celebrate the opening of the new Birks Group boutiques carrying the luxury Graff jewelry and Patek Philippe watch brands, Bedos took a break from his mission to chat about the two new shops, his goals for the Birks brand and why lower price points don’t mean losing luxury.
Q What made this the right time to open these boutiques in Vancouver?
A With Brinkhaus, we were selling Patek Philippe for years. When we heard that Hermes was moving right next door, we approached the landlord and asked if we could have the Starbucks location. The Starbucks location was twice the size of the Brinkhaus store, so we seized the opportunity to double the size of our store. And actually, literally, to have two fabulous brands — one store for Patek Philippe and the other for Graff.
Q And, for the British brand Graff, this is the first Canadian store?
A This is the first Graff store in Canada, yes. Graff is a unique business because it started in London. (Founder) Laurence Graff is British and he’s the diamond specialist. Year after year, he built such an expertise in diamonds that he does, now, have the most beautiful diamonds in the world. Gradually, because of it’s British routes, he built a network in Asia, via Hong Kong, and he developed a network in the U.S., via New York.
When we met, I mentioned to him that I would like to have a store in Canada. And, in my view, the best place to start for Graff in Canada, is actually Vancouver. And he agreed.
Q Despite being a Montrealbased brand, Birks seems to have been increasing its interest and emphasis on Vancouver. What can you share about this?
A The wealth in Canada today is absolutely concentrated in Vancouver and Toronto. So, for the luxury brand approach, we decided to invest in those two locations. Montreal is growing, and it’s growing fast. Montreal was behind for a number of years, but it is kind of catching up. But, Vancouver is an entry point into Canada from Asia. And Graff is already so well established in Asia, it made sense to introduce Graff to Canada via Vancouver.
Q What does that mean for Birks?
A Birks, as a group, when I moved here nearly seven years ago, I identified the potential for high-end luxury in Canada. Canada is a fabulous country. When you look at all the Western countries that are actually developing and growing — it’s Canada. And, if you project yourself forward, long-term, that creates a fabulous potential to grow a business.
So, we decided as a group, to do different things. The strategy consists of growing the Birks brand, the Birks collection and the Birks jewelry brand. And we were lucky to be worn and chosen by Meghan Markle, now the Duchess of Sussex. That was a great move for us. We decided to renovate all our Birks stores in Canada, deciding to transform Birks into a highend and more “cool” location to shop for jewelry and watches than it used to be.
Q How has the brand’s offering changed?
A Birks used to be in tabletop china and crystal-ware. We moved away from that industry and segment in order to focus on jewelry and watches. Having established ourselves as the leading jewelry in Canada, we approached super, magnificent brands to have exclusive distribution in Canada.
So, today, we have Chaumet, a French very high-end jewelry that never had a store in North America before. We just opened a shop-in-shop with them in our West Hastings flagship. We have exclusive distribution for Van Cleef & Arpels. We have a young French brand called Messika, which is super cool and has a collaboration with (supermodel) Gigi Hadid and Beyonce. And now we have the exclusivity for Graff. That makes us the place to go for exclusive jewelry.
Q This new youthful approach has signified a big shift in the customer base. How has this worked for the brand, introducing Birks — and a luxury product — to a younger customer?
A In today’s world, it’s not a contradiction. In today’s world, it’s not about segmentation by price or by age group. Today, the choice is about design and quality, first. And I really believe that Birks is the place to go to find great design and great quality — our quality is fabulous — but at an affordable price point.
Birks is not a European brand. It’s not from Paris, Milan or London. It’s not even New York. And we can’t pretend that we are high-end luxury. We want to be very Canadian in the sense that, rather than being very exclusive, we want Birks to be inclusive. So, we have very high end price points at Birks, but the starting price points are, today, at less than $100. And my belief is that today, and in the future, luxury is not about the price. And having more people coming into luxury via Birks is, for us, a way to give them a taste to discover culture, quality and design — and they can move up as they move up in life.