Headlines

Meet the Woman Who’s Prepping Alex and Ani to Go Public in the Next Two Years

Published

10 years ago

March 18, 2016

INSTORE Staff

Veteran CFO takes different tack with sales strategy.

Jayne Fitzpatrick-Conway, the chief financial officer of jewelry maker Alex and Ani, is leading a distinct sales strategy for her company that she believes will result in a deeper connection with customers and thus build greater loyalty, CFO magazine writes.

The strategy’s foundation is selling jewelry based on its “meaning” rather than focusing on bling and impulse buying, the article says. As she describes it to the magazine: “Where some might view us a jewelry company, the consumer has loyalty around the meaning of our jewelry and their emotional connections to those meanings. That’s what gives us sustainable growth, beyond [being] just another jewelry company.”

The rest of the piece is a deep dive on the company that explains its brick-and-mortar strategy and vertical integration, as well as its ambition to go public in the next few years. But before Alex and Ani reaches that point, Fitzpatrick-Conway will have to guide the company through multiple audits.

Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson

When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."