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Industry News: Luxury Jewelry Crime Spree In Paris Last Week; JVC Offers Free Supply Chain Webinar March 26, 2014 (0 comments)
Paris, France—Three retailers were robbed of jewelry and watches in one week in a jewelry crime spree here. The most recent robbery was Saturday at Colette, a famous fashion concept store on Rue Saint-Honoré. According to a report in Women’s Wear Daily, the thieves entered the store before opening as employees were laying out merchandise for the day. Wielding an ax and a shotgun, they took off with a stash of luxury watches.
The other two robberies occurred nearby in an area called the “Golden Triangle.” A week earlier, theives struck the De Grisogno store in the area, and on March 17, struck the DoDo store on Rue Saint-Honoré. DoDo, known for its gold animal charms, is a subsidiary of the Pomellato brand, itself owned by the Kering (formerly PPR) luxury conglomerate.
Thieves also struck an Audemars Piguet store in Paris in December, making off with luxury watches worth about $1.1 million, the paper reports. And in August 2013, a brazen daytime robbery at the Carlton hotel in France's seaside resort of Cannes made world headlines for its loss of $136 million in luxury diamonds and jewels.
Jewelry crime is a huge problem in France. John Kennedy, president of the Jewelers’ Security Alliance, told The Centurion there are as many armed robberies of jewelry stores in France as there are in the United States, despite the fact that the U.S. population is five times greater and we have five times as many jewelry stores.
Top image: The Audemars Piguet store at the corner of Rue Saint Honore and Rue Cambon was hit by thieves in December. Photo from thewatchquote.com.
JVC Offers Free Webinar on Supply Chain Assurance for Gold and Tungsten
New York, NY--The Jewelers Vigilance Committee will present Supply Chain Assurance for Gold and Tungsten, a free 45-minute webinar that explains the Dodd-Frank Act, and the steps suppliers must take to assure that minerals are conflict free.
The webinar will cover the fundamentals of Dodd-Frank’s conflict minerals provisions, its impact on the jewelry industry, and the steps necessary to implement a supply chain assurance program. The webinar will also describe the resources available to help with the challenges presented by Dodd-Frank, including JVC’s Supply Chain Assurance Kit. Suzan Flamm, JVC’s Senior Counsel, will be the webinar presenter.
The webinar will take place on April 7, 2014, from 2:00 to 2:45 p.m. To register, click here. For more information, click here.