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Signet CEO Light: We Are Investigating Every Complaint (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: From the Bloomberg News Room by Mark Crumpton, Charlie and
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  Speaker 1: another after the Bell Deal to tell you about Envision
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  Speaker 1: buying am Serge, with the deal enterprise value about fifteen
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  Speaker 1: billion dollars. I'm Charlie Poddett. That's a Bloomberg business flash.
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  Speaker 1: Charlie Pillett, thank you so very much. Mark in focus now,
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  Speaker 1: CEO of Signat Jewelers, parent company to the Cay Jewelers
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  Speaker 1: and Sales brands, among others, has been under fire recently
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  Speaker 1: for allegations of the company's substituted premium diamonds with cheaper,
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  Speaker 1: man made substitutes. He sat down with me earlier today
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  Speaker 1: to discuss how he's addressing investor concerns and what this
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  Speaker 1: investigation means to the company. First of all, it means
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  Speaker 1: everything to us, because we are in the business of trust.
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  Speaker 1: I've been Signal Jewelers is business for a hundred years,
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  Speaker 1: and I personally have been working for Signal for over
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  Speaker 1: thirty years. Is the only place I've worked. And over
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  Speaker 1: the years, year after year after year, we consistently try
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  Speaker 1: to understand our customers. We serve our customers, and for years,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm talking for over thirty years, the most important
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  Speaker 1: characteristic when our customers looking for a diamond or jewelry,
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  Speaker 1: it's not assortment, it's not the price, it's trust. So
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  Speaker 1: everything we do as a jewelry people, we always are
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  Speaker 1: trying to make certain that we have the trust of
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  Speaker 1: our customers critical. So once we heard about these these
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  Speaker 1: alleged um diamonds being changed or missing, we got about
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  Speaker 1: it immediately. Of course, the first thing we did we
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  Speaker 1: got in touch with the customers and we tried to
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  Speaker 1: understand the situation, and we wanted to make it right
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  Speaker 1: for them first and foremost parallel to that, we immediately
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  Speaker 1: got involved to understand the process, to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: the process that we have in place is making sure
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  Speaker 1: that there were no problems. So as a whole we
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  Speaker 1: react to everyone as as quickly as we possibly can.
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  Speaker 1: One thing you need to understand is that as signat
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  Speaker 1: Jeweler's UM we did last year alone over four million.
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  Speaker 1: It's called the products that went through our repair and
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  Speaker 1: service of over four million. And when we looked and
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  Speaker 1: looked and studied our customer complaints that relates to our
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  Speaker 1: repeer and service centers, less than two tenths of a
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  Speaker 1: percent of our customers complained about something to do with
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  Speaker 1: a repair, missing or or quality issues. I'm talking all
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  Speaker 1: in less than two tenths percent. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: two tenths of percent is too much for us and
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  Speaker 1: for me, so that we are looking at all our
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  Speaker 1: process and making sure we get it right for our customers.
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  Speaker 1: Are you concerned that you have You've done interviews like this,
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  Speaker 1: You've said you've looked into it, and only a tiny
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  Speaker 1: fractional percentage first of all our complaints from your customers,
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  Speaker 1: and even then you're you're not Are you saying that
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  Speaker 1: you have found no one. There's no one who can
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  Speaker 1: prove that you have found whose diamond was swapped. As
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  Speaker 1: of yet, we are investigating any customer in every customer.
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  Speaker 1: As of yet, we haven't verified it, but we're taking
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  Speaker 1: every every individual customers seriously and if we find something,
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  Speaker 1: once we get the diamond and we'll have it checked
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  Speaker 1: and we make sure if it's not, then we will
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  Speaker 1: get involved and find a figure out. What where is
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  Speaker 1: the problem. Are you concerned that your share price has
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  Speaker 1: fallen so sharply? You recently purchased about what two dollars
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  Speaker 1: worth of your stock a sign. I'm sure you're trying
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  Speaker 1: to show the public you believe in the company, but
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  Speaker 1: investors seem to doubt what you have said and potentially done.
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  Speaker 1: You have to look at our company over years. We
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  Speaker 1: are we are a company over the last three years
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  Speaker 1: have had eight to miss uncompounded annual growth rate. If
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  Speaker 1: you look back another five years or ten years, we
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  Speaker 1: have been outpacing the growth of the jeweler industry. We've
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  Speaker 1: been out for it's in the growth of the of
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  Speaker 1: the retailer sheet and from a profitable perspective, are we concerned?
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  Speaker 1: Of course, that's why I'm here today trying to set
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  Speaker 1: the record straight that we had signa Jewelers are making
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  Speaker 1: sure that we're doing the right things for our customers.
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  Speaker 1: Keeping their trust is critical. What about concerns about the
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  Speaker 1: credit facility that you use to help customers buy jewelry
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  Speaker 1: from you, especially diamond such an important purchase. Issues raised
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  Speaker 1: by people like Jim Grant, the Grand Interistrate Observer that
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  Speaker 1: some of these credits may not be as solid as
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  Speaker 1: they once were, that maybe the way you account for
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  Speaker 1: them uh makes those credits look better than they really are,
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  Speaker 1: and that's something that could also be a concern to investors.
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  Speaker 1: We have been lending money. We've had an internal credit
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  Speaker 1: business for well over thirty years and the specifically the
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  Speaker 1: internal credit is servicing our Case stores and our Jared stores.
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  Speaker 1: Our sales team have we used a d S for
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  Speaker 1: for our business there. But we've been doing this for
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  Speaker 1: over thirty years. We've been through three recessions during that
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  Speaker 1: time frames, so we've we've been using the same methodology,
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  Speaker 1: the same agent methodology for over thirty years. And by
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  Speaker 1: the way, um when we start over thirty years ago,
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  Speaker 1: that methodology was very commonly used in retail and we
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  Speaker 1: have been using it for over thirty years, and we
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  Speaker 1: feel very confident going through the recessions that we have
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  Speaker 1: a good handle on our credit business, very good handle.
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  Speaker 1: We have the experience there. I wanted the switch gears
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  Speaker 1: and step back and look at signat Jewelers. What is
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  Speaker 1: your business tell you about the health of the US economy?
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  Speaker 1: Is that good and getting better? Are you concerned they
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  Speaker 1: might be slowing down a bit? Again, if you just
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  Speaker 1: look at the at our numbers we reported our fourth quarter,
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  Speaker 1: we reported that we're up on a comp store basis
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  Speaker 1: four point five which, by the way, is one of
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  Speaker 1: the tops of retails that reported retailers reported. Then you
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  Speaker 1: look at our first quarter results, we're up two point
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  Speaker 1: four percent, again one of the top performing retailers. And
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  Speaker 1: what we told um the market during our second our
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  Speaker 1: first quarter call is that we're projecting that the second
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  Speaker 1: quarter that are comes will be up one to two
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  Speaker 1: and so there's there has been a deceleration. Um that
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  Speaker 1: being said, we're doing all we can. We've got a
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  Speaker 1: lot of great new innovative products that we're developing. We've
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  Speaker 1: got a lot of exciting new um TV ads are
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  Speaker 1: working on, and a lot of new exciting training programs,
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  Speaker 1: but there has been a deceleration. You have business in
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  Speaker 1: the UK. There's a big vote next week Brexit. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the UK vote to leave the EU European Union. How
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  Speaker 1: would that affect you? Look, we've we've known about the
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  Speaker 1: brexit um for over a year. We've planned for it
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  Speaker 1: one way or the other. One thing we've we know
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  Speaker 1: is that whether the people vote to stay in Britain
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  Speaker 1: or not, people still fall in love. People still have birthdays,
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  Speaker 1: people still getting married, people still buying birthday presents. So
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  Speaker 1: we are ready to adjust appropriately, but our product category,
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  Speaker 1: we believe no matter what happens, people are still falling
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  Speaker 1: in love and giving gifts to people. Mark White, the
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  Speaker 1: chief executive of Signet Jewelers. They operate K Jewelers as
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  Speaker 1: well as Zales and Jared Jewels store chains. The shares
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  Speaker 1: of signat jew there's down eighty eight cents today, closing
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  Speaker 1: at eighty two dollars and ninety nine center down more
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  Speaker 1: than thirty year to date. You're listening to taking Stock.
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