(PRESS RELEASE) Toronto, OH – Neil Travis, president of First Jewelry, the exclusive distributor of Persona, has announced his retirement and exit from the jewelry business after a career spanning more than 40 years. The decision comes amid recognizing the rapidly changing marketplace despite the success of the Persona brand.
Known for its selection of sterling silver jewelry, Persona gained success through its portfolio of iconic licenses, e-commerce and retail distribution to become a major force in the silver charm business. Beginning only eight years ago, Persona experienced dramatic growth and expanded from the North American market to become an international brand, carried by over 1,000 retail locations in Canada, the U.S. and the UK.
In recent years, Persona’s brand growth and popularity were driven by unique and iconic licensed collections that gained the attention of consumers worldwide. The strategy proved to be so effective with the exceptional success of the Peanuts by Persona collection that the brand introduced three additional licenses featuring The Beatles, emoji and Coca-Cola — all icons of popular culture for diverse and cross-generational fans to love and collect.
However, these successes were offset by the decision of the brand’s largest retail partner to exit the silver charm business in its mall-based stores, resulting in a dramatic decrease in revenue through the latter of 2017.
“Although the business and positioning strategy was sound and the onboarding of new Persona Partners continued to grow over the past year, after more than 40 years of manufacturing, marketing and merchandising in the jewelry business, it seems like the right time for me to retire”, said Travis.
Though the business has been slated to close on March 30 of this year, Travis also expressed an interest in seeing the Persona brand live on and is currently making every effort to transition the business to another company and/or investor to capitalize on what continues to be viable and a growth opportunity.
“Any interested parties with jewelry and/or online marketing expertise would be suitable candidates,” Travis said.