Latest / Best of Business / Jonathan Waecker: Michael Hill CEO on the company's bid to launch customisable jewellery

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Jonathan Waecker: Michael Hill CEO on the company's bid to launch customisable jewellery · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Now. Michael Hill has announced it will trial customizable engagement
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  Speaker 2: rings across some of its stores. This is part of
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  Speaker 2: a change in tech. The CEO is obviously new here
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  Speaker 2: in New Zealand as part of an investor road show,
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  Speaker 2: so let's have a chat Tim Jonathan Waker.
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  Speaker 3: Hello, Hi, Heather, how are you going.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. So what's this investor road
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  Speaker 2: show about? Is this getting to know the new CEO?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? So I've been in the role for seven months,
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  Speaker 3: got to deliver Christmas, had an amazing first half, and
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  Speaker 3: thought it was time to get out in front of
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  Speaker 3: the investors and tell them what we were thinking in
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  Speaker 3: front of our strategy.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what's the strategy. Is customizable engagement rings part
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  Speaker 2: of the strategy, is it?
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  Speaker 3: It's a part of it. I mean zooming out for
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  Speaker 3: a second. We're a business that has five brands in it.
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  Speaker 3: What we did the biggest one is, of course Michael
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  Speaker 3: Hill started here in New Zealand. Fifteen percent of the
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  Speaker 3: brand now eighty five percent happening overseas. So we're focusing
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  Speaker 3: on that one, and then we have another brand in
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  Speaker 3: Australia called Bevels. That'll be number two. The other three
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  Speaker 3: were walking away from or winding them down.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, and it's one of them. Isn't it that you
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  Speaker 2: got the you letched onto the fact that this trend
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  Speaker 2: was developing with customizable engagement rings.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a brand we have called ten seven seven
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  Speaker 3: and it's a beautiful brand was named after what happened
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  Speaker 3: with Sir Michael and Lady Christine their house burn down
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  Speaker 3: in nineteen seventy nine, hence or nineteen seventy seven, hence
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  Speaker 3: ten seven to seven beautiful, beautiful experience. People come in,
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  Speaker 3: build a ring. They spend four times as much on
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  Speaker 3: those rings as they do with our average Bridle customer.
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  Speaker 3: We're taking that and putting it everywhere. I can't have
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  Speaker 3: two brands doing the same thing. Yeah, I just need
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  Speaker 3: one brand doing it well.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so is it a trend?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: It is a massive to are you seeing this increasing
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  Speaker 2: as totally?
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  Speaker 3: The best part behind it? I think people want to
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  Speaker 3: build something special, right, if you want to do something
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  Speaker 3: that's all about you. Imagine you came in and you
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  Speaker 3: were like, look, I've been sitting at home. I drew
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  Speaker 3: a thing, I saw a thing. I want this to
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  Speaker 3: be made. Yeah, and you want to come in and
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  Speaker 3: trust somebody like Michael Hill Jeweler to come and build
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  Speaker 3: that for you.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not OK, because I'd imagine that what you
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  Speaker 2: guys would do is you'd have a bunch of options
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  Speaker 2: that we could connect together to make our own thing.
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  Speaker 3: But it would be previous.
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  Speaker 2: Would we be already like laid out options. Right, that's
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  Speaker 2: not what you're doing. You're doing completely bespuked.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's yes, and so we can do the options
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  Speaker 3: like you were saying. Right, So it's you know, you
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  Speaker 3: pick your stone, you pick your metal, you pick your setting.
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  Speaker 3: We can do that super easy. What we also can
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  Speaker 3: do is if you come in literally with a drawing
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  Speaker 3: and say I want something that looks like this, or
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  Speaker 3: I saw a celebrity like a Taylor Swift or my
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  Speaker 3: own tires, and I want something it looks kind of
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  Speaker 3: like that but has my swagger on it. We can
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  Speaker 3: do that for well, that's cool. Yeah, that's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Somebody was saying to me before, diamonds have lost their
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  Speaker 2: luster and people people are choosing other gemstones. Now, so
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  Speaker 2: these people I don't want to name, but it's Sam,
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  Speaker 2: the producer.
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  Speaker 3: Oh Sam, Come on, No, people love diamonds, but their
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  Speaker 3: tastes are moving around. You could imagine, right, younger generations
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  Speaker 3: are looking after lab diamonds in a lot of ways
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  Speaker 3: because they like the way they look, they like the
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  Speaker 3: way they sparkle, they're really big, The price beautiful, the
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  Speaker 3: price point tends to be really excellent in terms of carritage. Right,
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  Speaker 3: you can get a three carrot diamond for an affordable price.
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  Speaker 3: But also there's a lot of younger generations out there
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  Speaker 3: that really want the special uniqueness of a natural stone.
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  Speaker 3: They want something that has story behind it. They want
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  Speaker 3: something that's stone or something like that. Also a colored
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  Speaker 3: stone that's exactly right, but a natural diamond, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's one and a billion.
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  Speaker 1: I've stopped.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just thinking about this now. I've stopped wearing my diamonds.
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  Speaker 2: Have all of them, all of them, the engagement ring,
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  Speaker 2: the wedding ring, the diamond earrings. Like, I just don't
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, And if I'm completely honest with you,
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  Speaker 2: it might be because I feel like it's a bit Grandma.
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  Speaker 3: I think it depends on the style. But you've got
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  Speaker 3: a beautiful like paper clip necklace. I think I saw
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  Speaker 3: it on the gold chain stunning. So like people are
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  Speaker 3: just their tastes and jewelry or moving around. If you
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  Speaker 3: like gold jewelry, beautiful, we have things for that.
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  Speaker 2: Actually, sometimes I do rip the diamonds out, but I
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  Speaker 2: stack it like an old lady. Do you like the
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  Speaker 2: old stacking?
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  Speaker 3: I love a stacking. Well, I'm wearing three bracelets right now.
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  Speaker 3: You can't see it. This would be great for a
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  Speaker 3: men's collection. It's this for Berry. You want to come
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  Speaker 3: in later. I'm wearing a black diamond bracelet into silver.
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  Speaker 2: Don't Doesn't he strike you though? As a diamond guy
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  Speaker 2: like I reckon he'd want it. He'd want a lot
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  Speaker 2: of money spent on him.
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  Speaker 3: If you know him better than aiden, But I would,
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  Speaker 3: I reckon now.
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  Speaker 2: I was surprised to see New Zealand sales were up
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  Speaker 2: a bit about was it seven percent something since the
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  Speaker 2: right one and only five and a half. What's going
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  Speaker 2: on there because normally they're out performing us in the
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  Speaker 2: last few years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, five and a half percent on your biggest market
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  Speaker 3: is something you say thank you for, you know, Australia's
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  Speaker 3: number one hundred and twenty two stores, really really happy
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  Speaker 3: with the growth we're seeing there, and then Canada right
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  Speaker 3: behind that number one growth market over eleven percent. No,
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  Speaker 3: you're right. New Zealand's in between. It's seven point one.
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  Speaker 2: Are we coming off a lower base? Is that what
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  Speaker 2: it is?
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  Speaker 3: A little bit? But also New Zealand when it fires,
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  Speaker 3: fires really well for us. You know, it's the source
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  Speaker 3: of our you know, our heritage, it's our core and
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  Speaker 3: this is a market that is you know, it's our
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  Speaker 3: spiritual home and so doing well here matters.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, So when you see what's going on in Iran,
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  Speaker 2: YEP and the economic impacts that is likely to have,
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  Speaker 2: what are you starting to factor in for your business?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's a lot of uncertainty, right I think in
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  Speaker 3: this moment anybody running a business, myself included, you know,
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  Speaker 3: rigid plans are not the answer. And so I'm thinking about,
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  Speaker 3: how do we have scenario plans that go nine ways
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  Speaker 3: till Sunday. How do we think about just being flexible,
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  Speaker 3: listening to our customers and really showing up for them
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  Speaker 3: in the way they most want. Here in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: that means having the right propum oars in the right places.
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  Speaker 3: What we're seeing is some of our customers like still
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  Speaker 3: want that very special piece and they're willing to pay
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  Speaker 3: for quality.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, brilliant.
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  Speaker 1: Please to hear it.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, Jonathan's lovely to meet you and thank you very
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  Speaker 2: much again, and it's lovely to have you in studio
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  Speaker 2: with us. Jonathan Wake and Michael Hill's CEO.
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