Parisian jewellery brand Les Néréides is capitalising on growth in the Australian market with more stores in new regions.
The brand’s local business partner Forooz Normoyle (pictured middle), who runs Les Néréides’ Australian arm under her company Moda Nexus Group, is currently finding a space around Brisbane CBD and also has her sights set on New Zealand.
This comes after recently adding Chatswood Chase to its mix of store locations in Australia, bringing the brand’s total Australian store count to five. This includes four in Sydney and one in Melbourne.
Founded in France in 1980 by Pascale and Enzo Amaddeo, the jewellery brand has scaled to over 90 stores and shop-in-shops globally, and is stocked in more than 400 multi-brand stores. Price points range around mid three-figures.
Pier Paolo Amaddeo (pictured right), the brand’s artistic director and second-generation owner alongside his sister Bianca and his aforementioned parents, told Ragtrader in conversation with Normoyle that Les Néréides has been selling in Australia since 2011.
Normoyle, who has led the brand locally since 2011, adds there are a lot of customers in Brisbane now who are asking for a local store in the area.
“To be honest, I actually went there and looked for the right place,” Normoyle says. “Vicinity Centres only had one shop available, but it wasn't the right site for us. We will probably be somewhere within Brisbane CBD.
“The next stop for us is New Zealand – even though it's a smaller market – but Queenstown is what I think is the right location for us, with all the tourists and the locals.”
Noymoyle says she would like to be in more places in Melbourne, but says the city has become challenging amid a surge in retail crime.
“Theft in Melbourne is up 40 per cent up,” she says. “Here in Sydney, you can touch and feel our jewellery, but down there we have to put everything behind the counter, because thieves are so brazen.”
In one particular instance, she says a guy walked in, put his coffee cup down on the counter, unhooked a necklace on a stand and put it in his pocket. When the girls working the counter asked what he was doing, he said ‘What do you think I’m doing? I’m stealing this’. Then he took his coffee and left.
“Melbourne has got potential for growth, but they have to sort out the rising retail crime,” Normoyle says.
Outside of boutiques, the brand is also sold through stockists, including through Love Persimmon – another business that Normoyle runs locally. She is also keen on kiosk locations in high-travel spaces.
“You will be actually pleased to know, before COVID, I was about to sign a lease at the international airport here. And then COVID happened,” Normoyle says.
According to Normoyle, the initial idea was to launch a charm kiosk. Charms at Les Néréides Australia make up 11 per cent of total sales.
“We are definitely a gifting destination, as well as buying for yourself, because it's a gift that surprises people,” she says. “We hear this on a daily basis: people want to give something that others have not seen before.”
Pier Paolo Amaddeo says that Les Néréides’ Australian market is now on par with its Hong Kong and Taiwan markets in terms of brand performance.
Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan each have their own respective brand partners who run the local operations.
Pier Paolo Amaddeo flew to Australia last month for the launch of the Chatswood store, with the side quest of learning how the Australian market shops Les Néréides jewellery.
For the Chatswood store launch last month, Amaddeo brought over a collection of unused and unsold archived jewellery from Paris. The aim was to allow customers to make their own jewellery on the opening day.
“I collect a lot of different parts from all those jewellery and in Chatswood, people are going to make their own. They will select the parts that they want. I think it’s going to be fun,” Amaddeo says.
“I’ll also do a little psychology, seeing what customers are choosing for future artistic ideas.”
Amaddeo says he also wants to develop a store concept around charms and shifting into travel retail.
“People are travelling again now,” he says. “The idea is to create a little space, where you can shop, or at least discover, the brand. This is something that we want to develop. This is something I'm really working on in Paris.”
Outside of Australia, Les Néréides’ others markets include South America, other parts of Asia and across Europe.