PANDORA Annual Magazine

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2011 Annual Maga zine

PANDORA A/S Hovedvejen 2 DK-2600 Glostrup Denmark

MOMENTS 2011 ANNUAL MAGAZINE

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Unforgettable moments It’s said that life has its moments. Many are brief, fading quickly from memory. Others stay with us and may even alter the course of our lives. At PANDORA, we call these the unforgettable moments – times to remember and celebrate because they remain important.

LONDON (p. 31) BOSTON (p. 33) WASHINGTON (p. 37)

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COPENHAGEN (p. 41) WARSAW (p. 43)

MILAN (p. 47)

GEMOPOLIS (p. 15)

BANGKOK (p. 25)

Singapore (p. 13)

ADELAIDE (p. 7)

his understanding usually refers to the special relationship that women have with our jewellery. Yet our products are intimately bound with how we act as a group of people, so perhaps it equally applies to our company?

Inspired by important events from the past year, we therefore set out to look for moments that have shaped PANDORA and influenced the paths that the company will take in the future.

It’s a journey that takes us around the globe – from the designers in Denmark, who dream up our collections, to the jewellery makers in Thailand who bring these ideas to life, to our employees around the world who communicate our products and take PANDORA into new lands. This journey also takes us on a tour down memory lane to revisit some of the places where it all started. And it reaches the leadership of our company who brought PANDORA to where it is today and will lead the way into the future.

But most importantly, this is a journey that offered us a chance to meet and spend time with a few of our customers around the world – special people who allowed us to share their personal PANDORA moments with you. They are at the heart of this magazine, and we are extremely grateful for their warm welcome and generosity.

We went looking for unforgettable moments – unsure if we would find them or even if we were searching in the right place. Yet they revealed themselves again and again.

They live in the stories that women share with each other. They are found in the inspiration for our new collections, and in the care and craftsmanship that bring life to our jewellery. And they are seen in the actions of everyone in the company who work to make Pandora so special and precious.

This magazine collects these moments. We hope you find them worth sharing.

CONTENTs

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Random perfection

33 Sharing precious memories

Hear how Ellie and Elizabeth in Australia connected through their common passion for PANDORA’s charm bracelets.

Meet Krystal and her daughter Bianna who found,

in PANDORA, a way of ensuring a link through their

family generations.

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13 ARound the world with PANDORA

37 ANGEL OF HOPE

There are PANDORA stories to be found everywhere

around the world. Share a special moment that we

caught in Singapore’s Changi airport.

Learn the role that PANDORA played in forever

changing the shared connection between Sarah,

adoptive mother Nancy, and birth mother Myrna.

15 UNDER THE YELLOW FLAME TREES

41 A sparkle in their mind’s eye

Spend a day at PANDORA’s production facilities in Gemopolis, Thailand, to discover the magic behind the jewellery.

Get an insight into the PANDORA jewellery design process and learn where the designers find their inspiration.

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25 Freewheeling down memory lane

43 To Russia With Love

Experience 30 year’s of history in one afternoon

on a tour around Bangkok with PANDORA founder

Per Enevoldsen.

Take a cup of coffee with Peter Mark, head of

PANDORA Central Eastern Europe, and hear about

the company’s entry into Eastern Europe and Russia.

31 A shared vision

47 PANDORA steps into Italy

Learn about the shared vision that PANDORA

Chairman Allan Leighton and Chief Executive Mikkel Vendelin Olesen have for the company.

Join top Italian fashion editor Barbara Rodeschini on a personal tour around Milan’s design district to put PANDORA’s recent entry in Italy into perspective.

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ADELAIDE

We have to rush to meet Ellie and Elizabeth. They are both

random perfection on their way to a birthday party. Tomorrow is Australia’s 223rd

birthday, and the whole nation is getting ready to celebrate

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ou have to have schnitzel,” says Ellie, recommending a particular local dish. “Schnitzel with chips and gravy,” Elizabeth elaborates. Before adding: “And beers. In an Aussie pub.”

The debate takes in the merits of meat pies and the various types of schnitzel to choose from before coming back to the real passion both women share: PANDORA jewellery.

As manager of the PANDORA store in Adelaide’s bustling Myer shopping centre, you might expect Ellie to talk passionately about the store, PANDORA’s products and the new Valentine’s Day range that has customers talking, but when you scratch the surface, it becomes clear that this is a passion that has turned into a career, rather than the other way round.

Says Ellie: “I started my PANDORA collection when I was travelling throughout Europe a few years ago. I bought a bracelet in Amsterdam, got my first charms from my mum for Christmas, then collected charms and mementoes in Italy, Germany, France, and so on.” Like many others, every item in her collection tells a personal story. “It’s like wearing a diary or a photo album,” she says, before explaining the significance of everything she is wearing today.

She continues: “When I got home from my travels, I saw that a PANDORA store was opening in Adelaide and I thought: ‘I have to apply, it’s my dream job’.” Apply she did, and a role as sales assistant was followed by management of the Adelaide store.

Elizabeth is one of Ellie’s regular customers but, more than that, they share the shorthand comments and references that suggests they know a lot more about each other than you might expect for a store manager and customer.

Elizabeth explains: “We kind of know each other through the charms. By talking about why I am buying a

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particular item, I talk with Ellie about things that I wouldn’t ordinarily share. The only time you do that with clothes is when you are buying a wedding dress.”

Elizabeth began her PANDORA collection a couple of years ago. “I bought a leather bracelet to begin with, then a work colleague and I started emailing about which products we loved, and where new stores were opening.”

“I served you with your first bracelet,” Ellie chips in.

“I remember.”

Both Elizabeth and Ellie agree that PANDORA is something of a phenomenon among their friends and family. “It’s very ‘word of mouth’,” says Elizabeth. “But you see people wearing PANDORA products more and more, and there’s a sort of a ‘knowing look’, a recognition when you see another PANDORA fan” It emerges that there is also a passion among PANDORA fans for ‘their’ store too. “I wouldn’t go anywhere else,” says Elizabeth. “I always shop here, and I always ask for Ellie. And 10

when I recommend friends and colleagues to PANDORA, I tell them to do the same.”

Ellie laughs, as she adds: “We even have one customer who comes from Alice Springs – that’s 1,500 kilometres away. There’s a real following for the brand, and a real customer loyalty to their stores.”

Elizabeth takes her turn to explain the significance of her PANDORA collection, which seems to be packed with animal charms. She says: “I love animals. If I could have a zoo, I would. But I’m building one out of charms instead.”

“Ellie sold me this elephant charm,” says Elizabeth, “so I named it after her. All my animal charms have names. This is Ellie the Elephant. I think elephants bring you good luck, and it’s also a reminder of a trip I took to Thailand.”

Naming the charm Ellie sparked another idea in Elizabeth’s mind too. “I had always received great service, and I had built this connection to Ellie through sharing with her a lot of why I was buying each particular charm. So I decided I was going to buy one for her too.”

“So I was browsing the display one day and I homed in on the elephant: ‘Do you like the elephant?’ I asked, and Ellie said yes. So I got her to wrap it up and give it to me and then I said: ‘Thanks, but it’s actually for you’.”

Ellie blushes and beams at the memory: “That’s never happened to me before. I was amazed, smiling from ear to ear for the rest of the day. It was incredible. A true ‘unforgettable moment’.”

Ellie proudly displays the elephant charm. She says it has pride of place among a collection that includes five bracelets, seven rings, two pairs of earrings and a necklace.

She says it’s easy to sell something when you love it too.

We leave Ellie and Liz still chatting. Out of the PANDORA store, out of the shopping mall, into the still warm Australian sun. People are heading home, flags are fluttering in the gentle breeze – the party is about to start and more unforgettable moments are about to burst into life.

Somewhere in the world, there is an elephant charm called ‘Ellie’. The reason? Just because. There’s perfection in randomness. Just ask Ellie Horne.

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SINGAPORE

ARound the world with pandora Singapore’s Changi Airport has a thousand stories to tell every day. As one of South-East Asia’s major hubs for air travel, it sees enough goodbyes, reunions, luggage and trips of a lifetime to last, well, a lifetime.

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erminal 3 handles most of the airport’s regional flights, to Singapore’s near neighbours such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the like. Among the newspaper shops, luggage outlets and duty free stores, is a PANDORA concept store. Bright, white and beaming at all who pass by.

“Loooook!” comes a squealed half-whisper, and a smiling, pink-from-the-sun couple, bowl into the store lugging backpacks that look as if they may burst onto the spotless floor at any moment.

“Look, look, look, look, look!” comes the urgent whispering again, as the woman’s fingers dart like a one-fingered typist’s, pointing out her favourites in the display cabinets.

Ruth and John Fuller are on honeymoon. Married on 14 August, they’ll be travelling until 23 August. No, not for a week, but for a year and a week. This is no ordinary honeymoon, this is one of those genuine, authentic ‘trips of a lifetime’, and you can tell that they are just loving it.

Right now, they are en route from Japan to Bangkok via Singapore, but there’s a particular reason for their excitement at seeing the PANDORA logo on their way to the departure gate.

Says John: “A couple of months ago, I had the idea that we should get a bracelet and build a collection of charms that represent each of the places we’ve been to. Then we met someone in Bali who had a PANDORA bracelet and we both really liked it.”

He continues: “A few days ago, we were flying with Cathay Pacific and we saw the PANDORA bracelet in their in-flight magazine, so we bought it using the last of our Japanese Yen. Now we’re starting to add the charms.”

The couple have already been to central and south America, Australia and New Zealand, and travelled

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through Japan, and now they are working their way through South-East Asia. After this comes India, and then the long journey home.

So what did they add to their collection today? Ruth proudly displays her bracelet and singles out three new additions: “A turtle, to remind us of the Galapagos Islands,” she looks at John and says: “That was amazing.” Then she continues: “A Buddha for south-east Asia, and a suitcase for the whole trip,” she says.

They agree that they can’t agree about their favourite places. Names of countries tumble from their lips as if they are young children telling what they received as birthday gifts: “Argentina, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, Panama...” in no particular order.

Their story told, John and Ruth start to look anxiously at the departures board. “We already nearly missed one flight,” says Ruth, before John adds: “We woke up at 9am in central Tokyo when we had a 10.45 flight. They were actually boarding the plane when we got to the airport but, thankfully, they still let us get on.”

Ruth nods, adding: “Then of course you’re worried whether your suitcases will turn up.”

As they dash to catch their flight, backpacks and the Singapore heat conspiring to turn them even more pink than when they arrived, a little sparkle on Ruth’s wrist catches the light. Perhaps from the only suitcase she’ll never let out of her sight. And then they are gone.

Off to add to a lifelong collection. Off to create more unforgettable moments.

DID YOU KNOW...

By the end of 2010, PANDORA had established a commercial presence in more than 50 airports around the world, and the PANDORA jewellery was sold through in-flight stores on board more than 20 international airlines.

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GEMOPOLIS

under the Yellow Flame Trees In Bangkok the sun rises as fast as a Thai smile. If you take your eyes off it for a second, it’s as if half an hour has passed. There’s a similar effect with the remarkable craftspeople of PANDORA. Each piece is worked by hands that move at dizzying speed and with such precision that you dare not look away for a second. Located outside of Bangkok in an area known as Gemopolis, the productive heart of PANDORA is a remarkable place.

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eople flow into PANDORA in ones and twos, chatting and laughing in the soft morning light. First one, then eight, then twenty, forty, eighty. And still they arrive, dressed in purple shirts and pointing and smiling at the photographer. It’s like New Year’s Eve when you think that the fireworks will stop but they keep on coming. More and more people, arriving by scooter, car or bus.

It’s the start of the working day at PANDORA. People arrive and then sit on steps or at tables under the shade of the yellow flame trees with saffron flowers that accent their green leaves like stones in a ring. There’s time to enjoy a quick breakfast or take the opportunity for a last make-up check. It’s large-scale yet intimate — like a family gathering, or a reunion perhaps.

We’re here to spend a day getting to know the people and find an answer to a puzzling question: how is the quality and craftsmanship of PANDORA possible at such a scale? With PANDORA stores continuing to open around the world, it’s easy to question whether each piece can still be crafted by hand. After all, PANDORA already supplies thousands of stores. In 2010, another 57 million pieces went into circulation and nearly two pieces were sold every second. How is this possible?

The answer is not, as you might expect, industrial processes and conveyor belts of machines and robots. Rather it’s

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under the yellow flame trees

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the result of many, many small teams of highly-skilled people.

If, as a child, you wondered how Santa’s helpers could create presents for every single boy and girl in the world, then a tour of PANDORA comes close to explaining it.

PANDORA is a well-run organisation but you’ll receive a quick rebuke if you say that people are managed. “People here manage themselves,” states Thomas Nyborg who runs the day-to-day operations. “No jewellery business of this size can work through management, or at least management as it’s usually thought of.” Instead Thomas describes how they focus on ensuring that people are well treated and empowered to find and solve problems themselves. “If you’re stressed, you won’t be able to work well or produce pieces at the quality we need. So, for PANDORA to function, respect for each other and good conditions are the starting point.”

“It surprises people when they hear that Thailand operates with the same working rules as in Europe. In fact, Thailand based its labour legislation on the European system.

And of course PANDORA meets all the local regulations and often we exceed them and do even better.”

The quality of the working conditions is very apparent. From the pleasant grounds with their shady spots and feng shui enhancing carp pool, to the free bus service, health checks and extra breaks for pregnant women, to the recreation areas and the stringent safety rules – it’s clear that people care about each other. Scratch the surface and you notice how deep this goes.

“A lot of people come here from villages far away,” says Thomas. “But they aren’t used to city life and may need help with some aspects of living here. Credit cards can be a problem for instance, just as they can for people anywhere.

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So we set up something called ‘quality of life training’ to explain how to manage financial services and help people if they have problems. We also operate a buddy system for new employees to make sure that they are integrated in the company socially.”

Sometimes the scale of these initiatives makes you stop and wonder. The yearly company outing, for example, takes so many buses that it requires a police escort. “We’re going to have to change this,” muses Thomas. “We’ll do a series of more intimate outings instead.”

The result of these initiatives is, according to Thomas, not only quality products but also a low turnover of staff.

“We tend to keep people and then add more,” he smiles.

Keeping people though isn’t enough. Thomas is now focused on developing staff through training and, more importantly perhaps, enabling them to explore their own potential.

Thomas recounts a recent occasion when a team came to him and said that they were worried about the number of whiteboard markers that got used. The team reviewed the issue and worked out that the problem was that people pressed too hard and the nibs get flat and stop working. So they made a presentation and outlined a process in which the pens get their nibs changed to extend their life.

“It was a really minor thing but when people say that they want to do something, then you should let them,” he says. “In itself it sounds trivial but, for us, these projects

“No jewellery business of this size can work through management, or at least management as it’s usually thought of.”

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under the yellow flame trees

have important outcomes. The point was really that the team learnt a lot by doing this — exercising their analytical abilities, developing presentation skills and building a sense of achievement that carries on to other projects.”

Taking over the day-to-day running of the operation from Per Enevoldsen, Thomas is working to build on what has already been achieved. “Per will go down in history as the man who figured out how to do quality jewellery on a large scale. That’s his legacy. It’s an amazing achievement.

I’m now working with Per and the team here to make sure we will always be the best jewellery production facility in the world – both in terms of the quality of the pieces and how we develop each other.”

This emphasis is essential, Thomas believes, because it’s the people who really matter. To understand how PANDORA production works, you need to understand that it’s people who make it possible. “So if you’re looking for the reason why we can provide handcrafts on this scale, it really comes down to individual skill and personal engagement and motivation. “And to see that,” said Thomas, “you need to meet Aom.” 18

Amornrat Kaewpan, known as ‘Aom’ to everyone, is part of the Visitor Team who take people on regular inspections and visits. Smart, friendly and highly informed, Aom is usually found somewhere in the PANDORA complex with the representatives of the media or groups of suppliers who have come to see for themselves how their raw materials get transformed into PANDORA design.

“We run a visit pretty much every week,” she explains.

“We can go anywhere you like and please feel free to ask anyone questions. Or let me know if there’s something you’d like to learn. Where shall we start?”

The scale of the operation is the first thing that strikes you. Aom’s tour takes you through multiple processes that are a feast for the eyes. So much so that it only takes a few minutes before disorientation starts to set in. You nod to smiling staff, thinking that you met earlier but find yourself in an entirely new part of the operation. Multiple processes for each of the pieces start to melt into one and you’re unsure precisely where in the complex process you find yourself.

After a while you let the big picture slowly come into focus by itself and allow the individual skill that Thomas mentioned to fully capture your attention. Up close, the craftsmanship is breathtaking.

Watching raw Murano glass transform into a finished decorated bead is a visual feast. First, waxy melted glass is caught by a steel rod that is twisted over a gas torch.

Powdered hands keep the rod turning evenly for a perfect bead shape. The flame hits the glass like an asteroid hits the Earth’s atmosphere — white hot at the front with a yellow tail. Held up for inspection, it transforms from a glowing red to a rich blue as the glass cools. Further colours are added with a dab of melted glass and another blast of flame to smooth. Dab, twist, smooth. Repeat. The actions are hypnotic in their precision and rhythm. Behind their safety goggles, the look of total concentration in the workers’ eyes can only be guessed at, but it has to be there.

It’s a giant operation that seems to require a microscope to truly see and understand.

“You have to see this,” says Aom, pointing to a woman working with a clear glass bead. It’s a new product that may or may not be joining the other charms in stores around the world. Right now, they are testing the design to see if the right quality can be achieved. The women adds tiny stars and flowers to the clear glass. She’s not happy with the result but it looks lovely and we’re transfixed by how she makes the shapes bond with the glass.

This expert skill is apparent everywhere you turn. No matter what remarkable number of pieces that are created each day, it’s these classical techniques that ensure each is genuine and unique.

In the stone setting section, it’s apparent just how ancient the processes for making jewellery are at PANDORA. The glinting stones contrast with the craftsman’s tools — tiny wooden-handled hammers or the dull metal vice that holds the pieces gently in hardened wax.

It’s a matter of pride that no glue is ever used to set a stone. All stones are set traditionally, with silver or gold prongs or other clasps that hold them delicately in place.

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Requiring very deft taps of the jeweller’s hammer, the metal is gently coaxed over the stone with controlled pressure.

So concentrated is this work that it’s easy to startle someone. To take a look, you need to approach quietly.

Yet even with this level of skill, the stones can break or incur tiny cracks. In fact, quite a few of the more fragile stones will break during the setting process – a reminder that these are natural materials transformed through human action, not machine powered mass production. No matter how skilled the craftsman, defects will occur and these are calmly placed aside, a necessary price of craft technique.

At each stage of the production processes, exacting quality-control measures ensure that only the best pieces go forward. Many stones are rejected long before the stone setters see them. In fact, two out of every five stones that come to PANDORA fail to meet the company’s quality standards.

It’s in the cool and quiet gemstone grading section that the stones are first scrutinised. Lit by daylight lamps and decorated in shades of grey, a colour that helps the human eye stay sharp and well rested, the stone grading process again requires total concentration.

PANDORA fans would love this room. A pirate’s hoard of precious and semi-precious stones continually catch the eye – glittering from containers, spread over desks and held with tweezers for closer examination.

There’s a basket of black onyx that looks like polished blackcurrants. Rhodolite looks like pomegranate seeds.

There are so many colours: purple amethyst, silver-gray haematite and cold, white diamonds.

Each stone is checked for size, shape and quality. Broken, discoloured, incorrectly polished or poorly cut stones are rejected and returned to suppliers. Often the ‘defects’ are tiny and it’s a struggle to see them. To the untrained eye, they only become apparent after a period of intense scrutiny, if at all.

That’s often the way at the PANDORA production facility — it’s a giant operation that seems to require a microscope to truly see and understand.

As Aom leads us through the various stages of jewellery production — moulds, casting, assembly, stone-setting, polishing and onwards — it becomes apparent that the action is often in the tiny details; the precise measured movements of hands and fingers, or in the focusing of an eye. Remarkable people with amazing skills. It’s a reminder of Thomas’s focus on developing talent and personal engagement and motivation.

If you want to understand PANDORA you can follow the different processes for each of the pieces but, perhaps, it’s better to focus on the work of a single craftsman. In his or her actions, you’ll see a skill and quality that gets transferred to all PANDORA jewellery.

It’s the end of the working day and, though it’s not late, the sun is already starting to set. If anything, it falls faster than it rose. People gather once more in the grounds and under the yellow flame trees

then start to make their way home, still laughing and smiling. It’s been an unforgettable day — one that revealed an aspect of that special something about PANDORA that’s played out in the delicate rhythmic tapping of a hammer and the turning of glass under fire.

Even before you touch a piece of PANDORA, it already contains stories and memories of its creation. It’s a story of an obsession for quality and a testament to the craftsman’s skill. So, the next time that you touch a piece of PANDORA for the first time, spare a thought for the dedicated hands that produced it and spend a second to honour their skill before you make it entirely yours.

DID YOU KNOW...

In 2010, PANDORA opened two new factories in Gemopolis, adding to its existing two facilities opened in 2005 and 2008 respectively, and bringing the total number of employees in PANDORA’s production team in Thailand to more than 3,600 people.

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BANGKOK

Nearly 30 years in one afternoon. That’s the trip we took with

Free wheeling down memory lane Per Enevoldsen, the founder of PANDORA. Driving, literally, down

memory lane, we revisit some of the small workshops in Bangkok

where it all started. It’s a journey that began as a search for high-quality

hand-finished jewellery at prices women could afford and ended with

PANDORA producing its own jewellery solely in Thailand.

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e meet Per in the quiet, beautiful garden of his home in a residential area just outside Bangkok. It’s not too far from Gemopolis, the industrial zone where today PANDORA has its impressive production facilities, employing thousands of goldsmiths, silversmiths and other dedicated jewellery makers.

And there he stands. An earthbound, quite ordinary looking man with the glint in his eyes that have a knowing sparkle – a reminder of the remarkable history of how PANDORA was created. Today, Per Enevoldsen has promised to take us on a trip around Bangkok to visit some of the places where PANDORA first started to produce its own jewellery more than 20 years ago.

As we leave the peaceful garden and head off towards the busy roads surrounding the lively centre of Bangkok, we start at the very beginning. It’s a quest for a ring.

Back in the early 1980s, after having taken over a small jewellers’ shop on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, the young, newly-educated goldsmith Per Enevoldsen was invited to join his father on a trip to South-East Asia. Having a small business within Danish jewellery wholesale, Per’s father already had the right contacts. And so Per decided to go with him to search for the right place to buy, or maybe even one day to produce, his own high-quality jewellery.

“In Denmark, at that time, everybody was competing on price,” Per recalls, thinking back on the early days of purchasing for the jewellery shop in Copenhagen. “Nobody seemed to really care about the poor quality and the disappointed customers it created.”

Just before we left his home, Per showed us the first PANDORA silver ring ever produced in Thailand. As we now sit there, waiting for a gap in the traffic, he explains:

“If we wanted to produce in Thailand it was clear that we would have to do it ourselves.”

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“If you hollow out a ring to save silver and thereby reduce the price, you end up with a ring that looks fine at first.

But after some years it will probably start to bend and one day maybe even break.” He stops and seems to scout for a signal to hit the throttle. “My idea was to go in the opposite direction.”

He accelerates the car and gently slides in between trucks and motor scooters. “Don’t worry. I’m used to it.”

His smile reminds us of the fact that he has actually spent almost half a lifetime here.

Exactly half a lifetime earlier, the young Per Enevoldsen started his journey, searching for jewellery of the right quality. To provide his customers with high quality at an affordable price, his strategy was rather to offer to pay a little more, as long as he could then get what he was looking for.

After visiting a number of countries on their trip around South-East Asia, Per finally arrived in Thailand. Discovering its centuries-long history of handling precious metals and gemstones, a tradition for craftsmanship and quality production, and, not least, the friendly and respectful atmosphere of the Thai culture, Per had no doubt in his mind – this was the place he was looking for.

At first he started to work with local suppliers to produce complete pieces — initially still solely for the Danish market.

“We wanted to produce really high-quality items but in short production runs because they were only for Denmark.

It took a long time to get the quality level we wanted. Also we were very small, and you could tell that our suppliers thought that we were too much trouble. So if we wanted to produce in Thailand it was clear after a while that we would have to do it ourselves.”

As we bounce down a dusty road, high hump-backed bridges slow the car to a crawl. Green fields to one side are disturbed by scattered dwellings. We’re entering a 28

more built up area and the place where PANDORA started all those years ago.

“It’s still mixed use,” says Per looking around. “It’s OK to have small craft-based businesses here but it’s a residential area so nothing too large scale. That suited us.”

We pull into a colourful though slightly dusty street.

It’s sleepy this afternoon. No one else is on the road as Per turns and scans the buildings. He has a little trouble locating the place. “This one maybe… No, this is it.”

We stop in front of a two-storey building. Potted plants with blue and yellow flowers line the concrete steps up to a blue metal pull-down door. It’s hard to connect this charming but humble building with PANDORA’s gleaming production facilities of today. Yet this is where the story really began, with the first team of PANDORA craftsmen.

“There were only a handful of people working in those days,” say Per. “Just six or so.” Later we see the photo album Per kept of the early years – group portraits of people smiling for the camera, many of them are still with the company.

We trundle past to a covered market and then turn a corner. Per points to the second floor of a tiny building. “I lived up there for many years.” It’s modest. A testament to the early years when the company grew slowly. Looking at PANDORA today, it’s easy to forget that it hasn’t been an

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overnight success. Yet if you make this point to Per he will look at you for a short moment and then simply say: “I remember!”

For nearly 30 years, a lot of the time in Thailand, he has worked to build the company and fine tune the processes that enable women around the world to access quality jewellery. Per has the eye of the goldsmith and the mind of a logical systems thinker. “I’m interested in logic and mathematical things,” he says. “It’s perhaps an odd combination with being a goldsmith.”

These two elements are, however, still very apparent in PANDORA today and explain how the company can provide handcrafted quality in such large numbers. In effect, Per scaled up the goldsmith’s workshop, creating systems that allowed for hand-finished pieces to become affordable for women around the world. From each step of craftsmanship through obsessional quality control to extensive training programmes for new employees, these are processes that run through the production at PANDORA like blood in the veins.

With these systems and a dedicated eye for quality, PANDORA grew over the years from a handful of people to thousands of employees who work together today.

Yet in some fundamental ways, it’s not that different to the small workshops that we’re looking at now. Each piece is still hand-finished and uses traditional jewellery making

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“You have to take risks or you don’t achieve anything.”

techniques that go back thousands of years. PANDORA today isn’t this workshop but neither is it a factory. “It’s a ‘factshop’ maybe,” jokes Per. It’s telling that he needs to invent a word to describe the PANDORA production, since it’s really something different.

We’re back on the road and looking to make another jump into the heavy afternoon traffic. When it had outgrown its first home, the PANDORA production moved to another location only minutes away by car. We turn left into a tree-lined street and stop outside a light industrial workshop. There’s little to see except a sign that reads ‘Trillian Studio’. It’s a music studio now but there is no apparent activity this afternoon.

“When we moved here we got everything inside on one truck,” recalls Per. “But it was exciting because this space was twice as big. We could now employ more people.”

While there was a market already established in Denmark, even this expansion wasn’t without risks. “You have to take risks or you don’t achieve anything,” he says. Yet Per is more one for considered actions. It’s in the way he speaks. And as a logical thinker, Per was aware that setting up in Thailand wasn’t a guaranteed success.

With the growth being gradual for so many years, it’s tempting to ask Per when he thought that PANDORA would be a success. Was there ever a moment when he thought that this was going to work? When they knew that they were on the right path?

“It was when we launched the bracelet in Denmark in 2000. You see, in Denmark everyone tends to return their Christmas presents and swap them for something else. It’s a kind of tradition — everyone does it. But a funny thing happened. The women who received the bracelet did indeed return to the store but not to exchange it. They wanted to get more charms. When we heard that, we knew that we were onto something.”

This moment was the herald of a complete change of pace and a new era for the company. Soon international markets followed and, with increasing numbers of customers, the production facility had to be expanded to keep pace – a process that continues very much today. freewheeling down memory lane

We leave the past behind as we finish our tour at the gate to Gemopolis, the jewellery industry zone outside of Bangkok, which, since 2003, has hosted PANDORA’s rapidly growing production. If the blueprint for the company resides somehow in those small buildings and workshops we have visited today, the heart of PANDORA is now very much here, where the people are. The ‘family’, as the people at PANDORA often refer to themselves.

For Per, the success of PANDORA is due mostly to how they treat each other. “If you tell people what to do all the time, they will wait for your orders,” he explains. “We’ve never done that. People who work here have the freedom to act and anticipate problems that I would never think of.

We’re not really managing but more enabling them to make the right decisions.”

There is now a team around Per which takes on the day-to-day operations. “If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that I’d be working until I’m 70. But, with the company continuing to grow, it was important for me to have a skilled team around me, and I’m happy now to be able to hand over the daily operations.”

“I think of it like raising a daughter. You do everything possible to bring her up properly but at some point you know she will have to leave home and get married. And even though you’re a bit anxious and wish her well, you know it’s the right thing to do. And you realise it’s actually a moment for celebration.”

DID YOU KNOW...

In 1982, Danish goldsmith Per Enevoldsen and his wife Winnie established PANDORA. Later, Per moved to Thailand and, in 1989, he started up PANDORA’s first in-house production. As of 1 April 2011, as part of his planned retirement, Per will hand over the formal responsibility as Managing Director of PANDORA Production to Thomas Nyborg, who has worked closely with Per since 2008. Per will continue his relationship with PANDORA as Chairman of PANDORA Production and will focus on specific project assignments, including further improving PANDORA’s production systems.

30

LONDON

A SHARED VISION The first thing that strikes you about PANDORA Chairman Allan Leighton and Chief Executive Mikkel Vendelin Olesen is their presence. Allan, comes across as smart, assured, and mildly menacing. Then he speaks, and he is all affability and enthusiasm.

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ikkel, meanwhile, has an easy Nordic charm, and oozes the qualities that make a visit to that part of the world one of quiet efficiency and informal ease. He mixes the familiar businessspeak of a CEO with the kind of personal comments that reveal the genuine affection he has for PANDORA. This hybrid of professionalism and passion also make Mikkel a compelling storyteller, and right now, he is talking effusively about PANDORA’s 2010 and plans for the company’s future.

It’s worth pausing to consider that, for a company whose products are so closely linked to the personal stories of its customers, PANDORA itself has a few remarkable tales to tell. In the past year alone, the company has built two new factories in Thailand, made its debut on the Copenhagen stock exchange, moved into several new markets, broadened its product range, and added some formidable new talent to its leadership team.

Choosing a highlight from all of that must be harder than choosing a favourite from the PANDORA range of products? Mikkel fixes an intense stare somewhere in the middle-distance and then decides: “Taking the company to the stock market was a very special experience. It’s quite a sanity check to put the business through. When very experienced investors see us as a company they want to invest in, it confirms a lot of things that we already knew, about our strategy, brand and products.”

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Allan has a unique perspective on this, being appointed as Chairman of the Board in the lead-up to the stock market flotation. “When I first became aware of PANDORA, I was looking through the company’s performance data saying to myself: ‘This can’t be true’. I spent four hours trying to prove to myself that it wasn’t true before conceding that it was.

Then I asked my wife if she had heard of this company and she said: ‘Yes, I’m wearing one of their bracelets now’.”

After a little more digging and a few speculative discussions, Allan was hooked. “I very quickly went from ‘first contact’ to ‘I want to be involved’. This company has the potential to create something very special indeed.”

But isn’t the concept of a company being ‘something special’ a little, well, soft for two hard-headed businessmen?

“I don’t think so,” says Mikkel. “You don’t get the response we have had from our customers unless you have something they think is pretty special. Our customers trust PANDORA products as a way of expressing who they are and sharing that story with others. A brand that unlocks that level of intimacy is rare and very powerful.”

Mikkel wears the twin duties of trusted custodian and ambitious businessman with equal responsibility. He says: “Our ethos goes back to the foundation of this company – give customers better quality, exceed their expectations. That idea still persists.”

Allan says the ability to balance that idea of PANDORA as something special with a sound and structured approach to growing the business is the rarest of commodities: 2011 ANNUAL magazine

“In an industry that has seen precious little growth over recent years, we have introduced a concept that is seeing people queuing up at jewellers’ shops, knowing that they are buying something intensely personal, and of a quality that they can trust. So they come back again, and again, and again. It sounds pretty simple, but it’s incredibly hard to get right.”

You get the feeling that Allan spends his life looking for this kind of simplicity. He knows that if something is simply explained and easily understood, it can be communicated over and over again – something that may go some way to explaining how PANDORA has become a worldwide phenomenon.

“This business is built on peoples’ stories,” says Allan.

“When I began to hear them, I was hooked.”

Sitting back for a moment, and watching the exchange, the mutual admiration between Allan and Mikkel is plain to see. They speak the same language, contribute to each others’ stories, then one will sit back and allow the other to hold sway before joining in again when needed.

Mikkel says of the relationship: “When you play tennis with your brother, of course you play hard and you want to win.

But when you play against Federer or Nadal, you play better and you learn a lot too. That’s what it’s like working with Allan.”

Allan is equally complimentary about Mikkel and the rest of the PANDORA management team. He says, “The first thing I ask myself before taking on a role like this is: ‘Is the CEO good?’ I knew the answer was yes as soon as I met Mikkel. Then you look at the management team, and I have a shared vision

to say this is an organisation with a common purpose. There are no politics here, which is very, very interesting.”

Despite singling out the stock market flotation as a highlight, Mikkel is clear that it was just one milestone on a long journey. He says: “A lot of companies see getting a stock exchange listing as having ‘made it’. That was especially true in the days of the internet boom. But this is just ‘base camp’ for us. We are changing the way things are done in our industry and people are beginning to realise that.”

He cites further opportunities in the United States, expansion into the Asia-Pacific region, and key luxury goods markets such as Russia, India, China and Japan as just a few examples of where PANDORA can continue to grow.

So, if this is base camp, what does the summit look like?

“One day,” says Mikkel, “we will be the biggest jewellery company in the world, there’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

As if feeling the need to explain how all of this will happen, Mikkel launches into a lively summary of the PANDORA strategy – being more visible than ever before, a wider range of products, more markets, and caring for the PANDORA brand as if it were the most precious jewel of all.

And with that, Allan and Mikkel say thanks. With a quick handshake, they sweep off to a board meeting at PANDORA’s nearby London offices. As they depart, there’s a quick flutter of wings from some pigeons, and then they blend into the London crowd.

You sense that they would have it no other way. There’s too much to do to have it interrupted by fuss of any kind.

And there too, may lay the secret of success for the company they head.

DID YOU KNOW...

On 31 August 2010, PANDORA announced the expansion of its Board of Directors, adding five new board members with a complementary mix of skills, expertise and global business experience. On 8 September, the day after announcing its intention to launch an Initial Public Offering, PANDORA announced the appointment of Allan Leighton to the Chairmanship of PANDORA. On 5 October 2010, the company was successfully listed on the NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen stock exchange.

32

BOSTON

January in Boston. The snow is melting, then the melt-water re-freezing

sharing each night. Every time, becoming a poorer imitation of its former self.

precious It’s as if winter knows that Christmas has gone and is trying to retain an

memories impression of it, but the harder it tries, the less certain the memory becomes.

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sharing precious memories

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“We thought about it,” says Krystal.

“Is she old enough, is she responsible enough?

But she loves her bracelet and she always says that’s her favourite charm because of Nana Millie and Big Nana.”

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t’s this idea of holding onto precious memories that has brought us to Boston, or, more precisely, to Swampscott, a northern suburb of the city, where the Pierce family live.

Krystal, 28, began her love affair with PANDORA jewellery a few years ago when husband Bryan bought her a silver bracelet with bumble-bee and forget-me-knot charms.

“Each one has a story behind it,” she says.

Says Krystal: “My husband’s nickname when he was growing up was ‘Bee’, and our daughters’ names – Bianna, who is nine, and Brooklyn, four – both begin with ‘B’, so the bumble-bee has always had a special place in our family.”

She explains the meaning of the remaining charms as if they are old friends worthy of introduction, and you sense that this is a regular ritual.

“My mother bought me an owl charm, she said: ‘because I was smart’. I guess owls are supposed to be smart,” says Krystal, in a soft balance of humility and pride. Krystal is training to be a teacher. She has been studying for three years now and is the first in her family to go to college. After graduating, she plans to study law.

Then there’s the birthstone – sapphire, the Christmas tree, the heart, the yellow and black beads – more reference to the bumble-bee theme. Then there’s the forget-me-knot charm. Krystal’s fingers linger for a while on this one, touching it, twisting it, and her eyes gaze at something faraway.

“This one is for my grandmother, Nana Millie,” says Krystal. “She was more like a mother to me. She took care of me when I was little, and spoiled me rotten when I was growing up. If I got in trouble at school, she’d be the one who made sure I didn’t get in trouble at home.”

Krystal goes on: “She was tough too. She went to bingo all the time. She loved bingo, but the reason she would go was to win so she could give me money for bills. She’d walk in the house and just stick the money in

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my pocket. She would want nothing more than for us to be happy.”

The bond between grandmother and granddaughter extended to another generation when little Bianna arrived.

Says Krystal: “Nana Millie idolised Bianna. She would try to spend every second she could with her. They were very close. We have home videos of Bianna where all you can hear is Nana Millie talking about what Bianna is doing.”

When Krystal was eight-months pregnant with Brooklyn, Nana Millie succumbed to pneumonia. Within weeks, the same thing happened to Bryan’s grandmother, ‘Big Nana’.

Brooklyn missed meeting them by a matter of weeks.

Krystal twists the forget-me-knot charm between thumb and forefinger. She says: “It was a lot to deal with. I remember that the biggest concern for both Nanas was holding on to see Brooklyn. Neither of them did, but they see her now.”

Krystal smiles and looks upwards.

Bianna interrupts the quiet moment by showing off her own PANDORA bracelet. There, among the charms, is a forget-me-knot charm which matches Krystal’s. “This one is for both Nanas,” she says, with a big, warm smile.

“We thought about it,” says Krystal. “Is she old enough, is she responsible enough? But she loves her bracelet and she always says that’s her favourite charm because of Nana Millie and Big Nana.”

I put it to Krystal that the bracelets, and the forgetme-knot charms especially, are her way of ensuring a link through their family generations. A way of showing that they are always connected.

“Absolutely.” She says. “That’s why I tell my husband to hurry up and fill my bracelet, so I can get another – I have two daughters and I want to pass the bracelets down to them.

It’s an expression of ‘self’, of my personality. I can see my daughters wearing these in 20 years time, and their daughters wearing them, and their daughters... passing it along.”

This notion of Krystal’s collection being an expression of personality is something she feels strongly about: “You can have 500 people with the same charm, but it means something different to each of them. And then their combination of charms will be unique, so you won’t find two people with the same bracelet, or with exactly the same meaning.”

For Krystal, PANDORA is about uniqueness. The uniqueness of her grandmother, of her daughters, of her life. And little Bianna already has views on who she is and what she wants to be. She says: “I would like a horseshoe charm next, because I’d really like a horse, and one day I want to be a vet.”

Leaving Boston, the snow is almost gone now. For most, the remnants of Christmas are melting away for the last time. But for a precious few, their memories have been captured and can be treasured for years. Perhaps even for generations.

You can almost see Nana Millie smiling.

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WASHINGTON, DC

Angel of hope There’s a bite in the Washington air, reminding you that this is the air of politicians. All around, the city is peppered with reminders of where this still-young nation came from; of its ideas and principles.

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ook closely and you can also see the cues borrowed from other civilisations – Greek colonnades, French avenues. Each is a reminder that, wherever it establishes itself, humanity reflects its origins.

These thoughts persevere through the outskirts of the city, across the state line into Maryland, named after the wife of Charles I of England, and to a commuter town that boasts colonial houses with colonial street names to match.

Inside one of these houses, Sarah Camp sits with her adoptive mother Nancy and talks of her own origins, of family and belonging, and of a strange symmetry that has PANDORA at its heart.

Nancy glows as she unfolds the Camp family history, and glances with pride at the daughter she adopted as a baby. As she tells the story, she flicks through a scrapbook of memories dating back to the day she and husband Warner first heard that their application to adopt had been successful.

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She continues: “In the very last letter, she had sent photographs of herself and I looked exactly like her. It was so weird.”

Myrna had left contact details but, when Sarah followed them up, the trail had gone cold. Other attempts to make contact in subsequent years also bore no fruit. Then, a remarkably 21st century solution emerged.

“I was on Facebook one night, randomly looking around, and there she was! Still looking exactly like me,” says Sarah.

“So I emailed her and, after a few careful exchanges she wrote back saying: ‘Yes, I’m the person you are looking for.”

Email contact turned into regular phone calls, regular text messages and an exchange of gifts on birthdays and at Christmas. “We’re friends now,” Sarah says of Myrna, which brings the story almost up to date. Almost.

The connection shared between Sarah, adoptive mother Nancy, and birth mother Myrna took another twist one Christmas.

Sarah explains: “Myrna and I were on the phone to each other on Christmas Eve, talking while opening the gifts we had mailed to each other. I had decided to buy her a PANDORA bracelet so I could begin a tradition of sending special things that meant something to the two of us. Then, as I unwrapped my present, I saw that she had bought me a PANDORA bracelet too, this one with an ‘angel of hope’ charm.”

The next morning, sitting by the tree with her family, Sarah unwrapped the last of her gifts from mom Nancy: a PANDORA bracelet with a ladybug charm. Perfect symmetry. The three, who are forever connected but have never all met, all made the same choice of gift to express their love.

There is invisible symmetry here too, in the family rituals they observe. On Sarah’s birthday every year, Myrna takes out the dress that Sarah wore during the two days they were in the hospital together, and holds it for a few minutes while she thinks of a daughter elsewhere. Nancy and Warner go out to dinner each year on the anniversary of the date they received the letter approving them as adoptive parents.

And Sarah wears her PANDORA bracelet always.

Now, her charm collection include other precious reminders – her birthstone, a penguin because it’s her favourite animal, an ‘eye’ to remind her of the Mediterranean sea, and a pineapple – symbol of a warm welcome in some parts of the US. Says Nancy: “All of those things are a part of who she is.”

Sarah smiles warmly at Nancy and takes her hand in a precious grip. “I feel that all the things Myrna wanted for me

“We waited a long time,” says Nancy. “Then we got a letter saying we had been approved. Normally, you can wait up to a year between approval and having a child placed with you, but we got a call to say we had a child the same day as the letter arrived. It was just overwhelming. There was so much to do. We didn’t sleep the first night from excitement.

The second night we slept from exhaustion.”

She glances down at a page in the family photo album: “This is the day we met her,” she says. Eyes distant. Nancy is here, but she is also there, nearly 30 years ago with the little girl she nicknamed ‘her ladybug’.

The word ‘adopted’ has always been a positive one in Sarah’s mind. “We were always really open about it,” she says. “Mom would always say to me: ‘Your birth mother loves you so much that she wanted a different life than the one she could give you.”

“In fact,” says Sarah, “I was never really interested in pursuing what it meant until a few years ago, when we were discussing genetics in a biology class I was taking.”

Sarah went home from the class and started to ask questions. Nancy, long prepared for this day, handed over a binder of documents, containing information dating right from her and Warner’s first application to adopt.

Sarah takes up the story: “I got to this page which said: ‘Dear Adoptive Mom and Dad...’ It was a letter from my birth mother, Myrna. ‘How did you get this?’ I asked. It turned out that, many years before, she had made contact through the adoption agency to see how I was doing.”

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ANGEL OF HOPE

have been achieved, even though she wasn’t able to communicate her wishes to my parents,” she says. “Myrna wanted me to have siblings, to play music, to have a great father, to play at the beach. She couldn’t have planned it, but I had all of those things.” Nancy squeezes Sarah’s hand in return, love and pride in a single tensing of the muscles.

As we head back into the city the light is dying, but we manage to catch a glimpse of the Lincoln Memorial, with old Abe staring out across the National Mall. Although made of stone, he still seems to be contemplating the big questions that vex us: Where do we come from, where are we going? Does understanding our past offer us clues about our future?

He might try asking Sarah Camp for a few of those answers.

DID YOU KNOW...

In 2010, PANDORA launched its Facebook fan page. By the end of the year, more than 150,000 fans had signed up. Today, the number has grown to over 250,000. In September 2010, PANDORA launched its Facebook app allowing fans to design their own bracelets and share them with their Facebook friends. Today, the app has been downloaded over 600,000 times, and altogether PANDORA fans have spent more than four years building and sharing PANDORA bracelets.

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COPENHAGEN

A sparkle in their mind’s eye Looking for the creative element that adds the extra sparkle into PANDORA jewellery, we expected white walls, egos and creative outbursts. Instead we find something more interesting – a design studio that spans half the globe and a group of highly creative but humble people who are quietly revolutionising the jewellery industry.

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he interview will have to wait. Lone Frandsen and Lisbeth Eno Larsen have just received new samples from Thailand and there’s a palpable sense of excitement as their eager hands open the box. Carefully packed within are samples of a jewellery collection in development. The pieces are placed in the palm of the hand to assess the weight. Fingers and thumb ‘read’ the detailing. Then they are held up to see how they catch the light, and observed close up to check for any faults. Then a more emotional assessment: is it beautiful? Or even, as Lone and Lisbeth are known to ask: “Is it nice or not nice?”

“We’re a little obsessive,” admits Lisbeth. “But often a little change can make it perfect. And we want it to be perfect.”

This is all part of an ongoing, and rather special, ‘conversation’ that takes place between the designers in Denmark and the production facility in Thailand. Separated by more than 8,000 kilometres, they stay in touch via elec41

tronic communications that close the distance and collapse time zones.

The designers develop pieces as a sketch or 3D model, which is sent to Thailand where the craftsmen realise their visions in silver, gold and precious stones. These pieces are then returned to Denmark for Lisbeth and Lone, and their designer colleagues Mads Trolle and Lee Antony Gray, to review. It’s a ‘ping-pong’ creative process that has powered the development of PANDORA through the years.

All this means that the PANDORA design studio isn’t a private sanctum but rather a deep connection between people that crosses geographic barriers and time zones.

“We’re always thinking of the next guy, meaning the person who takes the next step after us,” says Lee. “It impacts the design process because we’re also thinking about how it will be produced.”

The interaction between Denmark and Thailand engages both parties into a closely-knit and mutually dependent team. Together they form a closed loop of creative exploration: as the designers experiment with possibilities, the production facility innovates new techniques that, in turn, open up further potential.

“Production is normally the Achilles’ heel,” says Lee. “It’s often the bit where everything goes wrong. But here 2011 ANNUAL magazine

at PANDORA, our colleagues in Thailand are not only immensely skilled, but also interested in exploring the creative potential of jewellery making. There are often major technical issues but their ‘can do’ attitude gets them solved. When you have that dynamic, anything is possible.”

This relationship is the foundation for the quality of the product. By working closely together, the designers and the production team are able to create jewellery that is both affordable and extremely well made.

“Mads and I joined PANDORA because we were excited about the idea of democratic design in the jewellery industry,” says Lee. “We wanted to speak to 100 times more people. We love it that the company’s products surprise people in a positive way – the quality of the product is usually beyond their expectations.”

Their first collection, LovePods, for example, was not only made with 18 carat gold and diamonds, but has a pavé setting in which gems are ‘paved’ across a piece of jewellery like cobblestones. When paired in a pavé setting, diamonds and gold shimmer and sparkle as light touches each of the individual stones. It’s an additional layer of quality that the designer brings.

PANDORA follows the rules of classical jewellery.

It’s not fashion-based. In fact, the very idea of fashion is something that is disturbing to PANDORA’s designers. “The jewellery fits with women’s individual lifestyles,” says Mads.

“It’s not a fashion brand in that we don’t dictate. That’s very important to us. PANDORA doesn’t tell women what to wear or how to wear it. It’s all about celebrating the moments in your life.”

The designers want to create pieces that pay tribute to women as they are. It’s less about ‘becoming’, in the sense that they put on the jewellery to be transformed into someone else, but more about ‘being’ — to celebrate who they are right now. For this reason, the company provides a pallet of choices for women to choose from and also seeks to design ways for women to make choices that are actually embedded into the individual pieces.

PANDORA, as a company, is perhaps best known for the bracelet concept that Lisbeth and Lone have been designing for many years since the first launch in Denmark in 2000. The great opportunities for personal expression made possible through choices of bracelet and charms, partly explain its success. “You can always find new ways to wear it,” says Lone. “You can wear it as a complete collection or just a single piece if you want to keep it simple.”

The concept is part of the story but the designs that Lisbeth and Lone create are clearly a major part of its attraction. There’s something about the way that they design that enables women to attach stories and tie individual charms to particular moments in their life. You just need to glance at PANDORA’s Facebook page to see the deep and powerful reaction that women have to their work.

“There are a lot of feelings there,” agrees Lone. “But people put their stories there themselves. It wasn’t our intention to do this. It’s something that just happened. Later, when we noticed this, we found that we could start to design for it – creating a particular piece that would help a sparkle in their mind’s eye

women tell a story. But just as often we design something simply because we like it.”

PANDORA fans might wonder whether their favourite charms are produced through stories from Lisbeth and Lone’s own life but it’s more about inspiration pulled from daily life.

“We are always getting inspired and that is a kind of story too,” explains Lisbeth. “Together we make around 50 new pieces each year, so we’re always looking for ideas. These might arrive while we’re shopping in town, or come while walking in a forest or from a little detail that we notice on wallpaper.”

The combination of exquisite design and opportunities for self-expression by allowing for different combinations of pieces is something that is apparent in other collections.

For Mads and Lee, who joined the company in 2007, incorporating these ideas into their designs was a breakthrough moment.

“It was the LovePods collection when we knew that we had completely absorbed Pandora,” says Lee. “The concept of rings that can be fitted together to create your own look is clearly something that is born from the PANDORA design DNA.” They also see it as part of a Scandinavian design tradition. More normally known for its clean lines and use of simple materials, Mads and Lee make a case for Pandora coming from a Danish tradition that talks to the majority of people, not an elite, and empowers people to make their own choices. “Consider how LEGO celebrates creativity and self-expression,” says Lee. “Pandora isn’t all that different if you really think about it.”

One word that you will hear repeated again and again by the PANDORA designers is ‘genuine’. It comes up a lot when talking about the design and production process.

They speak of genuine materials, genuine classical jewellery production techniques. It’s also mentioned frequently in relation to their connection with the following of loyal PANDORA customers that they are building. It’s not about bending people to some brand vision.

“The success of PANDORA has come through word of mouth,” says Lee. “It wasn’t the result of a big advertising campaign. It wasn’t constructed — it just happened. So there’s something very real about the customers’ reaction to PANDORA. And that affects our work. We feel that the products that we’ve made here are more genuine than the ones we have made before. They’re just more grounded.”

There is also something very genuine about the way that the designers behave. As a team they are not subject to the airs and graces that you might associate with the design profession. This isn’t a team who behave like rock stars. On the contrary, they are very humble about their achievements despite inarguably being among the most successful jewellery designers in the world right now. And they are fascinated with how PANDORA is making jewellery democratic. Simply put, it’s more about the customers and less about them as designers. “Normally you would design with the brand in mind and then encourage people to join with that vision,” says Mads. “But when we design jewellery at PANDORA we have the customer in mind.

And that’s a big difference.”

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WARSAW

To Russia With Love Just ‘two years old’, and PANDORA is already being warmly embraced by women in Eastern Europe and Russia.

It’s a kind of love at first sight that speaks to that special something in PANDORA. We met with PANDORA’s own Peter Mark in Warsaw — the regional headquarters for the Eastern European region and the nerve centre for the company’s expansion in Russia and Ukraine – to find out the secret of their success.

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he half light of a Polish winter. A snow-grey day in Warsaw. A stillness on the streets. Yet inside this Starbucks clone, Coffee Heaven, it’s all go. Customers try to peer through steamed-up windows to the frost-dusted cobblestones, and Managing Director of PANDORA Central Eastern Europe, Peter Mark, needs to raise his voice above the ‘whack-thunk-hiss’ of the espresso machine. He’s back where it started.

For several months Peter and two management colleagues used the cafe as an impromptu office – planning PANDORA’s move into Poland and then the rest of Eastern Europe. “We drank at lot of coffee,” Peter laughs. “Eventually the owner took pity on us and offered some space upstairs.” He grins: “It’s funny to be back.”

As he stirs his latte, he’s pulled back to the early days of PANDORA and recalls how fast customers embraced the brand in the region. After two years, PANDORA is well established in Poland. With great determination, and no doubt helped by large doses of caffeine, the first store opened while Peter and the team were still without an office back in May 2009. More followed. Now there are a series of glittering concept stores in the capital and the major cities of Poland. A move into Ukraine and other Eastern European markets soon followed and now attention is focused on Russia.

Danish by origin, Peter has great respect for local knowledge and understanding even though he has lived and worked in Eastern Europe for 17 years. “We always

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And we’re telling women that they can value themselves.

This isn’t the way that things have been done in Russia.”

Yet Peter believes that the time is right for PANDORA because Russian women no longer need to display brand names ostentatiously. A period of stability and a growing middle class means that Russian women don’t need others to tell them that they are worthwhile. They know it.

PANDORA brings a quality and luxury that was impossible before. It can do what other jewellery companies can’t: make exquisite design affordable and part of a woman’s everyday life.

“We think that PANDORA’s move into Russia is important and says a lot about the way that the country is developing and what Russian women are feeling. There’s a growing self-confidence. Russian women don’t need to buy an item because of the brand or just because it is expensive. They are beyond that.

They can now choose what connects with them emotionally.”

With six concept stores already opened in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2010, Peter can already gauge whether the time was right for PANDORA in Russia.

“We’ve had a very strong reaction to PANDORA. Women have embraced it. They appreciate how the pieces can be integrated into their lives and that they can choose how to wear it. PANDORA doesn’t dictate but rather lets women express and celebrate themselves. It’s a confidence that they know others will notice.” work with a local partner but we’re very choosy. It can take a long time to find the right person because they need to understand PANDORA and what it means to people.”

“Initially we had trouble explaining PANDORA to business people in the region. It’s not the kind of company that they are used to here. The kind of relationship that we have with our customers and the obsession with design and quality. It was a new thing.”

Most potential business partners didn’t get it. They had nothing to relate PANDORA to and they had seen many jewellery companies try to move into the region and fail.“‘Forget it’ was the response that came again and again. People just didn’t understand that you could run a business this way.”

The problem, Peter decided, was that the potential partners missed the special connection that women have with PANDORA. The solution came about quite by accident – one of those special moments that PANDORA seems to generate.

“I was in a meeting with a potential partner who was perfect. But he just didn’t understand that there was something magical about PANDORA. I’d been trying to explain it and placed some jewellery on his desk. Then the man’s assistant came into the room and I noticed that her eyes lingered on the jewellery. It spoke to her.”

Peter took a risk and said: “Look, this isn’t something that men can understand. The only way you’ll ever understand PANDORA is through women, so let the women in your company decide.”

They agreed to leave the office and after asking four women working in the company to review the jewellery and say if they thought that PANDORA was something for Eastern Europe.

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“Returning a few hours later, the room contained not four women but 12. All were talking, laughing, making bracelets and exchanging charms. The deal was done. And I learnt something that day: PANDORA speaks for itself.

Women understand the quality and appreciate the design.

Men don’t understand it so they should listen.” It’s the way that Peter now explains PANDORA whenever he gets the chance: “I don’t try to ‘sell’ the brand but rather get out of the way and let the women decide.”

The team is now seeking to use the same winning strategy in Russia. But, if anything, finding the right partner was even harder.

“We spoke with 81 potential partners before we found the right person. Really. 81! Frankly, it was exhausting. My feet ached from rushing from one meeting to the next. I’ve never felt so tired and lonely, but we decided to do this right or not do it at all.”

It took a year but eventually Peter found Maxim Nogotkov. “He’s nothing like what some people might expect a Russian businessman to be like. Energetic and still in his 30s, Maxim only gets involved in projects if they are personally exciting or bring something special to Russia.”

And PANDORA is, in many ways, a new kind of business in Russia. The country is well known for being in love with brand labels and catering to the hyper-rich that emerged from the fall of communism. It’s less known that most people have to make do with cheaper, poor quality goods.

“There’s nothing in the middle. You can’t get good value, high quality and great design. There are no companies like PANDORA in Russia. We’re not just opening a business but creating an entirely new segment — quality for all women.

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“Pandora doesn’t dictate but rather lets women express and celebrate themselves. It’s a confidence that they know others will notice.”

With the concept proven in Moscow and St Petersburg, PANDORA’s gradual expansion is expected to include other major Russian cities with a population of 1 million or more.

That’s about 20 cities in Russia.

The rapid expansion in Eastern Europe raises some questions for PANDORA. Will the company be able to maintain its special connection with women? How can it grow without changing into something that the customer doesn’t recognise?

“We have to stay true to ourselves. There’s something special about PANDORA and we have to keep this feeling.

But we shouldn’t try to define it too much. As soon as you put things in a box they lose their magic. PANDORA is an idea that a few people believed in and women – who can sense what’s genuine and what’s fake – connected with.

“If you’re looking for the heart of the company, then you should pay attention to what women feel about PANDORA. to russia with love

It’s a unique connection that enables women to express a thought or a feeling or recall a special moment.”

To maintain this connection, Peter and his colleagues are determined that PANDORA keeps being an enabler of women and their personal stories.

“We don’t tell women who these pieces are for or how they should be worn. They decide which pieces to buy, how to combine the charms and the rings and how they want to wear them. We just provide the elements and let women write their own stories. If we can help women do that in a very personal way, then PANDORA will continue to be a success.”

Staying true to the original spirit of PANDORA and having a little humility and a lot of respect is powering the growth of PANDORA in the region.

“As long as PANDORA continues to listen to the women who buy our products, we’ll be fine. We’re not out to change the essentials of what we do. But we do want to bring PANDORA to women in Russia and elsewhere. Honestly, they deserve it. Women here are amazing and should have the same access to the quality and value that PANDORA offers as women elsewhere in the world.”

Time to go. Kiev is calling and there’s much to do. Including the preparations for his coming move to Hamburg where he from April is due to take up a new, combined position as Managing Director of PANDORA’s operations in Central Western Europe as well.

As Peter takes a last look around his own particular bit of coffee heaven and home-from-home for many months, his eyes fall to a PANDORA bag on a nearby table. A quick grin: “You didn’t put that there, did you?”

DID YOU KNOW...

In 2010, under the leadership of PANDORA Central Eastern Europe, PANDORA entered into a Master Distribution and Franchise Agreement for Russia. By the end of the year, six PANDORA concept stores had been opened in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Later, the roll-out in Russia is expected to also include other major regional cities with a population of one million or more.

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MILAN

PANDORA steps into Italy With PANDORA having just opened for business in Italy, we get an insight into the challenges and opportunities of the market with top Italian fashion editor Barbara Rodeschini who takes us on a tour of the country’s design and fashion epicentre – Milan. Watched by billboard models who smile down like angels, we traverse the city’s grand plazas and fall a little in love with its charm, glamour and cold winter light.

Walking through Milan on a chilly January day is like swimming in the ocean as you stride from sun-warmed spots to colder, shadow-cloaked spaces. Scarves wrap sunlit faces and breath steams on the mobile phones that Italians keep clasped to their heads. We’re hurrying to keep up with Barbara Rodeschini as she strides past the powerhouses of design and fashion.

A well-known Italian fashion editor, Barbara graciously found the time between men’s fashion week in Milan and the Barcelona shows to help us explore the city and provide insights into the country that PANDORA has only recently entered. It’s a move that the company is excited about because of the opportunities in Italy and also its influence around the world.

“Italy has a strong heritage in jewellery, since the Romans,” explains Barbara. “I believe that this DNA is one of the reasons for Italian market leadership in Europe. Italy is also a top production centre and this means that many of the top brands in the world are based here. These two factors, plus the fact that Italians love precious things and believe in investing in commodities, boost the market.”

In itself, Italy is the biggest market in Europe for fine jewellery, valued at more than € 5,5 billion. Yet it also acts as an antenna for ideas that are broadcast to the world via catwalks and magazine spreads. Italy matters because the country is a trendsetter for design — including jewellery.

And it’s here in Milan, the design and fashion epicentre, that PANDORA has set up its base of operations.

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Italy acts as an antenna for design and fashion ideas that are broadcast to the world via catwalks and magazine spreads.

“It’s pretty hard not to be stylish in Italy - it’s endemic,” says Barbara. “I grew up with it and remember the clothes and style of my mother in the 1970s. Amazing. But for my job, you must be very committed and study a lot. Brands have a long heritage here and you’re expected to know them in detail.”

Used to having a front row seat at fashion shows (though she calls the endless battle for this position ‘a nonsense’), Barbara has a practiced eye and understands the details and codes of design. “I can tell everything about you from what you’re wearing!” she laughs. “But I won’t say!” For an insider’s view of the rarefied world of Italian design, we couldn’t have a better guide.

From Rinascente, the landmark department store at Piazza Duomo in the very centre of Milan, Barbara leads us with dizzying turns through the city. We wander through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuelle, move on to catch a glimpse of Castello Sforza, and then speed through the buzzing commercial streets of Corso Magenta and Corso Vercelli. Everywhere, we’re presented with world-class design and style.

A city in which playful creativity is serious business, Milan is charged with contrasts. It’s at times dark and brooding with its monumental architecture and ancient gargoyles that stare or scowl down on us. And then we turn a corner and step into a river of low winter sunshine. We’re bathed again in exuberant pink light and have a few seconds to re-experience the magical moment before Barbara pulls us forward to see more.

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2011 ANNUAL magazine

Like the Danish design tradition that PANDORA was born from, Italian design is a brand in itself. With its long history of both creating objects of beauty, Italian design is recognised around the world. It’s come to stand for quality, for colour and a certain hard-to-define flair that adds a whimsical touch to modernism. So whether it is a piece of furniture, textiles, clothes or a car, Italians continue to create and compete with the best in the field. And it’s been always this way. It’s an obvious cliché but, if PANDORA can make it here, it can make it anywhere.

We’re outside a major department store on Corso Vercelli, the end of our tour. It’s a prearranged magical moment — top Italian fashion writer meets PANDORA at a branded shop-in-shop. What will she make of the jewellery? Barbara certainly has her finger on the country’s jewellery tastes: “Gold appeals to Italians and rings are always popular.

Right now, solitaire rings are admired. And charms of course,” she laughs. “Charms are everywhere on wrists, on bags and even on phones!”

This is good news for PANDORA of course, but perhaps, in fashion-driven Milan, charms could be a passing trend or a fad? Ask her whether she feels that they will disappear, she’ll glance down at her own bracelet, pause for a second, and say: “I don’t think so. When you wear a charm bracelet it’s like having a friend with you. It’s a series of stories. Part of you perhaps.”

We enter the store to review the full range of PANDORA products — the rings, pendants, earrings and yes, of course, pandora steps into italy

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the bracelets too. Barbara examines the work with a practiced eye. Ask her what she makes of it and she simply says, “It’s cool. It’s well made.” Then, forever the journalist, she is quickly quizzing one of the sales assistants. She elicits that the staff are excitedly awaiting the new pieces that celebrate Valentine’s Day. As Barbara inspects a Murano glass charm, the staff members explain that initial sales have been good. In fact, the first stores were a godsend to PANDORA fans in Milan.

There were already a few women who had discovered the brand and now no longer had to leave the country to get it. Many, the staff report, seem to have a connection with Northern Europe – either through their work or their partner and so were introduced to that special PANDORA quality a little earlier than their compatriots.

The initial positive reception seems to be broadening fast as Italians get to know the brand. There’s certainly the potential for a company like PANDORA, Barbara believes: “In Italy there are exclusive brands for select clientele and

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then younger people and students are catered for at the other end of the market. But there’s very little in the middle.”

For Barbara, this tends to be the rule in Italy with few companies catering to the needs of most women and providing quality they want at prices they can afford. “PANDORA will be a perfect fit in the middle-to-high part of the market,” she believes. “In Italy there’s a lack of brands in this area.”

The Italians, and the Milanese in particular, are a highly sophisticated design audience. Like Barbara, they tend to understand the codes of fashion and have both an appreciation of what’s happening now and also an admiration for aspects of design that are more lasting. It’s still early days but, with the company’s ability to combine great design with craftsman-derived quality at affordable prices, the signs are there for a ‘dolce vita’ for PANDORA in Italy.

It’s appropriate then that, as we step back out on the chilly street, we get another wave of that special Milanese light. The beautiful life always feels close in Milan. So, before Barbara leaves us where we started at Piazza Duomo, there’s just time for a few more moments together in this magical city.

DID YOU KNOW...

In July 2010, PANDORA entered the Italian market, establishing a presence in Europe’s largest market for fine jewellery. Based in Milan, a team of sales representatives and visual merchandisers cover the Italian market. By the end of the year, the PANDORA jewellery was being sold through over 450 points of sale across Italy.

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Concept and Editing Corporate Communications Concept and Writing Mark Stevens (www.markstevens.dk) and Mark Watkins (www.corporate-understanding.com) Photography Ture Andersen (www.ouro.dk) and Anne Mie Dreves (www.annemiedreves.dk) Design Pleks (www.pleks.dk) © PANDORA 2011