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Pilgrim’s face, French film actress Emmanuelle Béart, hails the return of flower power – the spring 2005 collection | |
DENMARK. Pilgrim, one of the world’s fastest-growing fashion jewellery brands, is stepping up its travel retail presence worldwide. The family-owned Danish company is launching its latest seasonal jewellery collection, eyeing its first European airport shop-in-shops and, in a major initiative, unveiling its first sunglasses range.
The company sees travel retail (which it entered in November 2001) as a strong business in its own right but also as an ideal way to build domestic brand awareness. Travel Retail Account Manager Annette Møller Andersen commented: “I see this unique retail environment as the way to “˜fly’ the brand into new territory, for example in the US market.”
The colourful and distinctive independent Danish brand will be exhibited for the first time at the IAADFS Duty Free Show of the Americas in Fort Lauderdale – the company’s first foray into the Americas. It hopes to follow up with a domestic launch in 2007.
In Asian travel retail the brand is well established and enjoys listings with King Power Group, China Airlines, AK Duty Free and the KNTO in South Korea. Its regional airport presence includes Singapore Changi, Seoul Incheon and Macau.
The Middle East, seen as another important target, has got off to a strong start with Bahrain Duty Free where the retailer has just expanded the Pilgrim section. The company is seeking to expand both airline and airport business in the region and will exhibit at this year’s Middle East Exclusive exhibition.
In its European heartland Pilgrim enjoys a widespread presence. Its top five domestic markets are the UK/Ireland; Sweden; Denmark; Norway and Germany. Airlines will be the major focus in travel retail this year but the airport business is also thriving.
The brand is in big demand in World Duty Free stores – including the new watches, jewellery and sunglasses store at Edinburgh Airport, profiled by The Moodie Report recently. “Over the coming years we will see the emergence of expanded Pilgrim shop-in-shop concepts on the key domestic markets,” said Møller Andersen. “These will also very likely be available to travel retail in the near future – we have had interest already in a concept for airport locations.”
In airlines the company is working closely with Alpha Retail and has just gained listings with two of the UK company’s inflight accounts, BMI and MyTravel.
Germany’s Gebr Heinemann has been successful in listing the brand onboard Air Europa, Hapag Lloyd, Air Berlin, LTU and Condor. And in an important breakthrough last December, Pilgrim was listed on Air France with two references sold on the carrier’s Americas, Asia, Africa and Caribbean routes. The Americas and Asia flights have enjoyed particularly strong sales, the company said. Following on from Air France, Air Maroc will list Pilgrim from May.
In Germany, a key market for Pilgrim, the brand has been listed by national carrier Lufthansa since November. “It will hopefully give Germans a better knowledge of our name and make the domestic market stronger,” said Møller Andersen.
The return of flower power – the spring 2005 jewellery collection
Pilgrim’s spring 2005 collection focuses on simplicity, with the designers finding inspiration “in the graphic flowers of the late 60s and early 70s, in nature’s own flowers, in poetry and the elegance of the swallow”.
The tone of elegance is fostered by the widespread use of semi-precious stones, glass, gold, silver and enamel. The colours are soft pastels of mint green, lavender, off-white, peach, light rose and yellow, occasionally contrasted with bright multi-colours.
Putting sunglasses in the travel retail frame
World Duty Free recently became the first travel retailer to list the brand’s first line extension, its new sunglasses range (pictured below). Launched in January, the sunglasses are offered by the UK airport retailer at its London Gatwick South, Heathrow T3, Glasgow and Edinburgh stores.
“Judging by the initial interest from our traditional customers we see huge potential for our new sunglasses range in global travel retail,” said Møller Andersen.
The first sunglasses collection (spring/summer) features 11 trendy lines for both men and women. Unique to Pilgrim, the range features small decorative jewellery pendants that can be attached to most of the styles. These are changeable – with one click the wearer can swap pendants and create their own “˜sunglass look’ to match their style and colours.
Pilgrim Managing Director Thomas Adamsen said: “Designing sunglasses seems to be a natural extension to our product portfolio. Sunglasses are like jewellery, an important accessory in the way they complete the personal look. By using our jewellery design expertise in our new collection, we have created sophisticated sunglasses with a different touch.”
The sunglasses give the highest UV-protection and come in several fashion colours and designs. The jewellery pendants, also available in a range of designs and colours, can be bought separately.
Whereas the jewellery typically sells for €12 -120, the sunglasses will be priced at a more premium €80-100 and the jewellery attachments for €11-16.
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Pilgrim takes the plunge into the sunglasses market with a high-quality range that mixes colours and designs and allows the wearer to add jewellery for extra effect | |
A Pilgrim backgrounder
• Founded in 1983
• Head office is in Skanderborg, Denmark
• Pilgrim currently employs 144 staff
• Distribution: Sells jewellery to more than 5,000 shops and department stores across the world.
Pilgrim is targeted mainly at 20 to 40 year old women. The jewellery is characterised by its closeness to general fashion trends, combined with a personal twist. Pilgrim launches a new collection four times a year.
Founded 20 years ago by Annemette Markvad and Thomas Adamsen it has flourished into a multi-million dollar international business. Its current “˜face’ is French film star Emmanuelle Béart, (Manon des Sources). It uses a variety of materials ranging from bone and horn from the Philippines to Taiwanese plastic and crystals from Austrian house Swarovski – one of the key components in many of the designs.
Other elements include enamel, glass, acrylic stones, freshwater pearls and semi-precious stones. The metal used is an alloy coated with copper or palladium and then gilded or silver-plated using real gold or silver. All jewellery is 100% nickel-free.
Notably the company also works closely with international charity Medicins Sans Frontieres* (MCF). In December 2004, for example, Pilgrim donated over Dkr1.650.000 to MSF from the sale of jewellery especially designed for the fund-raising effort. This made Pilgrim the largest single donor to MSF in 2004. The agency gets 100 % of the profits from the sale – not just a percentage. Each year profits from one line will be entirely donated to the organisation.
*Note: Medecins Sans Frontieres was born out of the exasperation of a group of French doctors working in desperate conditions in the Biafra War in the early 1970s. They were determined to create a movement to deliver independent humanitarian aid wherever it was needed, and particularly one that would speak out about the plight of the victims it helped. Thirty years later, MSF is now a hugely-influential international medical aid agency. The movement was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.
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