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Tiffany & Co Revamped NYC Flagship Store Opening Soon for Elite Shoppers
By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh
After three years of renovations, Tiffany & Co.’s new flagship store is ready to open.
As reported by Crain’s NY, the Fifth Avenue shop will be opening on April 28th.The flagship store, which has been renamed the Landmark, will now focus on catering to ultra-elite clientele, CEO Anthony Ledrubit.ly/TJVnews told Bloomberg News.
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Tiffany & Co, first founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John Young, boasts over 300 retail stores around the world. The company had formerly been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, until January 2021, when LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired a majority stake in the American Jewelry company, delisting it from the stock exchange. The French multinational luxury giant paid $15.8 billion for its stake in the company. Ledru was then appointed as Chief executive by Louis Vuitton SE. The jewelry company boasted $4.44 billion in revenue, and $586.4 million in net income, as per its 2019 annual financial disclosure. That year, the company reported 14,200 employees.
In 2019, ground breaking for construction began at the flagship store at 727 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The store, which had first opened in 1920, was closed to the public, with a temporary store opened next door for retail operations to continue. The temporary store was netting about $200 million a year. The renovation is now complete, and word has it that the store has been completely transformed.
While Ledru declined to disclose how much was spent on the flagship store’s overhaul, he told Bloomberg that “it’s the largest investment ever made by LVMH on a single store. I think that says a lot.” Upon additional prompting, he added that the sum was well below a billion dollars. Nonetheless, the CEO has high hopes that the money spent will go far in bringing in additional revenue over the years. “You don’t make these kind of investments not to see an impact”, he shared.
He hinted at higher price points for the higher floors of the 11-story Landmark building. In particular, the penthouse, on the 10th floor, will be “super exclusive. It’s for maybe one, two, three, maybe zero VIP clients a day”, said Ledru. He added that the VIP space spans close to 8,000 square feet. “It’s part of what we call ‘the diamond on the roof,’”. Asked in the Bloomberg interview if he thought the new store would bring in $400 million a year, or double what the temp store had netted, the CEO replied:
“Obviously you would dream of higher numbers…But the obsession is really about brand desirability. What we try to create is a dream. We’re trying to add a really experiential, immersive, and cultural dimension to the project.” He explained that the flagship would also be responsible to increase the brand’s desirability, and help the name expand, particularly in Europe. As per Crain’s, in the past, this flagship storewas responsible for some 10% of Tiffany’s overall sales. Ledru pointed out that the company has shifted its goals, to prioritize potential outside of North America. He spoke about doing better in their stores in Paris, Milan, London, Dubai and Tokyo.
As for new product lines, Ledru said jewelry watches will now be an up-and-coming category. “The point is to align the watch business with the jewelry business,” he said. He described several limited-edition watches coming out, some of which would range from $100,000 to $500,000.
