Belgian jewellery firm looks toThai hub for Asian expansion

Thailand would be a hub to support and facilitate the growth of Roos’s business in Asia.
“We’re originally from Holland. My great-great-grandfather founded the company in 1835, or about 181 years ago. I’m the sixth generation of the family. We [currently operate] more than 200 jewellery shops in Belgium and Holland,” said Rien Rozendaal, founder of and designer for Roos & Nijs.
“We started selling our Roos jewellery ornaments last week in China through Derier’s retail network with 80 stores in major cities, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Ningbo. [By] coincidence, we also started last week in Thailand as well with the appointment of Market Access Co Ltd as our master distributor covering Thailand and all [of the] Asia region,” he said. “We’re from the original Dutch company and we didn’t find any necessity to expand further in my home market as well as in Europe as we’re at the high level already. I believe in Asia as a promising region to grow our jewellery business.”
Rozendaal said starting to do business in China and Thailand arose from coincidences. In China for example, he was introduced by a Chinese friend in New York to the owner of Derier.
“It is not that I’m looking for distributors. Finding the right people who will be my partners is not easy. We have to share the same way of thinking, the same vision and passion, and common interests,” he said.
“They [distributors] should understand the European way of distributing the brand. In my way, doing business is not the first thing. My first thing is to get the same vision of how to market the brand.”
Rozendaal said his business approach was quite different from setting up business targets and growth.
“I like to design nice and beautiful jewellery. I have my target group in designing, that is my wife, not for the market. I design jewellery for the one I love, and appreciate that many women love this design too,” he said.
Chanokphol Chaisuparakul, co-founder and director of Market Access, said Roos was not something people saw every day, because of its unique designs and long heritage of 181 years. The brand is also high-end jewellery that people can wear every day.
“In five years, we think Roos could be a brand for sophisticated people who seek perfection in luxury jewellery. We aim to expand in Southeast Asia starting from Thailand, especially in Bangkok and big cities such as Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket,” he said.
He added that in the first year, the company would open one flagship store for Roos jewellery as well as one dealership in Bangkok.
“We will start expanding Roos jewellery to some parts of CLMV next year,” said Chanokphol, referring to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
He added that the CLMV markets had a lot of potential, with people who are highly into networking, are well educated and have high spending power, and are fashion-oriented.
Somkiat Chaisuparakul, chief executive officer of Market Access, said Thailand’s gem and jewellery market had high growth potential. The market value in 2015, especially diamonds, was about Bt78 billion, with imports accounting for Bt19 billion and domestic production the remaining Bt59 billion. With the economic situation getting better, entrepreneurs are more confident that the market will rebound.
“This is a great opportunity for us to join forces with Roos in expanding their market from Europe to Asia,” he said.
“Using Thailand as a hub to support the liberalisation of the AEC [Asean Economic Community] market, we will market Roos diamond jewellery to customers in Thailand and [elsewhere in] Asia. We aim to become the top jewellery brand in Thailand by 2017 with annual sales of Bt200 million.
“We will expand Roos diamond jewellery to cover all potential markets in Asia, starting from CLMV, in the future,” he said.