Pandora Builds a Precious Empire

Pandora is a familiar brand name for fine gold and silver jewelry that bears a distinctive trademark quality. The company itself has been in business since 1982, when goldsmith Per Enevoldsen and his former wife Winnie started offering their wares from a local shop in Copenhagen, Denmark. Today, the company owns and operates over 8,000 stores in twenty different countries.

Here is a company whose reputation for fine details extends to more than just jewelry. The firm uses a hallmark including the letters ‘ALE' to identify genuine Pandora creations, in honor of Per's father Algot Enevoldsen. They've also created a network of authorized dealers and educated customers on their products to ensure a level of authenticity.

Pandora's website is also distinctive and comprehensive, as noted by CMS (Content Management System) software provider Sitecore, who deemed their web presence worthy of recognition as Denmark Sitecore Site of the Year. Using their platform, Pandora's site speaks to twelve different languages and gives shoppers and dealers (as registered members) the opportunity to create their own bracelet designs.

The jewelry vendor is an active philanthropic contributor to several worthy causes, including Habitat for Humanity and the Canadian Breast Cancer Association, and donates pieces to local charities and community services far beyond its headquarters. Pandora also takes part in the Women of the Year Awards hosted by Glamour magazine by donating a custom bracelet for each person recognized.

Pandora's recent success is due in part to its niche market as a provider of charm bracelets, each one as unique as the individual and hand-made in a manufacturing facility in Bangkok, Thailand. The company crafts a wide variety of more than five hundred different charms with features than can include gemstones like amethyst, diamonds, sapphire, or topaz. This type of specialization is what makes Pandora charm bracelets unique, and highly desirable.

The level of financial success over the last ten years by Pandora recently attracted the attention of Axcel, a conglomerate for investment in fifteen Swiss and Danish firms in which the company now owns shares. Axcel purchases sixty percent of Pandora shares in February 2008 as part of an effort to streamline the brand and increase its global share of their industry's marketplace.

These powerful relationships have built an international empire for Pandora. As of 2008, the company generated over ninety percent of its equivalent of $200 million (U.S.) revenue outside of Denmark.

This year, the company introduced an exciting new collection called LovePods, a unique cluster of 18K gold rings, pendants, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, set with precious stones. The rings are particularly interesting, where designers Mads Trolle and Le Antony Gray have "stacked" two to five bands together with colorful gems like peridot, quartz, and citrine to bring an elegant new dimension to the Pandora brand.

As "sweetie bracelets" and personalized jewelry becomes more commonplace in the industry, Pandora is sure to remain at the forefront of innovation and consumer interest. Their pieces are frequently featured in popular fashion and women's interest magazines, and their overall appeal grows with every passing day.