Chow Tai Fook Jewellery’s new flagship store, which opened in September in Hong Kong’s Central district, has a subtle design, as well as the many jewels sold inside. The name above the door does not prominently display the Chinese characters “Chow Tai Fook” in the retailer’s thousands of other outlets. And inside, the store’s design hearkens back to some of Hong Kong’s traditional imagery; the metal grid covering the columns is a reference to the ubiquitous bamboo scaffolding in the Chinese city.
The jewelry is also more understated, like a gold and red enamel diamond pendant designed to mimic the Chinese characters that make up the store’s name and Cheng Yu Tung, who launched the jewelry chain in one of them. Hong Kong’s leading conglomerates.
In April, Chow Tai Fook tasked the retailer’s creative director Nicholas Lieou with refreshing and renewing the 95-year-old brand.
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“In Chinese jewelry, (artisans) try to overload a lot of cultural meaning into a single piece, which makes it very heavy,” Lieou said in an interview in mid-November. “Using a concept, an idea, in a piece of jewelry is a very modern take on what they would traditionally do.”
The decline of luxury
A luxury downturn is putting more pressure on Chow Tai Fook’s rebrand. The retailer earned 39.4 billion Hong Kong dollars ($5.1 billion). six months ending September 30, 2024, the first half of the jewelry company’s fiscal year. This represents a year-on-year decrease of 20.4%, the largest since 2016.
Chow Tai Fook is based in mainland China. Almost all of the retailer’s roughly 7,000 stores are in mainland China. The company’s second largest footprint is in Hong Kong, where tourism numbers have been very low.
Luxury brands have reported sharp sales slowdowns in China over the past year, as Chinese shoppers scale back spending amid a sluggish economy. But he appreciates it China’s personal luxury market It will decrease by 22% in 2024, compared to a 3% increase in Europe.
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
Lieou, who spoke to him luck before releasing earnings, he said he was aware of how difficult it could be to sell high-end jewelry in a tough economy, in part because Chow Tai Fook is so open about its sales figures. “People won’t buy something they don’t like,” he said. “We have to take (the economy) into account.”
Economic data, as well as post-Covid changes in how people enjoy themselves, is why its modernizing push is focusing on “wearability” and “everyday jewelry” to appeal to a younger consumer. “Nowadays, everyone is much more casual. You have a lot less galas and things to go to, especially after COVID.”
“Rather than these big gala necklaces, something a little softer, smaller scale, but still beautifully made,” she said.
energizing the 95-year-old brand
Lieou Chow joined Tai Fook about four years ago after working in the US, including a stint at Tiffany’s, as the retailer’s design director, high-end jewelry. Sonia Cheng, the retailer’s vice president, jumped across the Pacific to take a job at the Chinese retailer.
“I really understood what he wanted to do,” she said. “He wanted to energize and refresh the brand. Being from Hong Kong, we know what the brand stands for historically.’
Chow Tai Fook’s first store opened in Guangzhou in 1929, but during World War II operations moved to Macau and British-Portuguese Hong Kong. Cheng Yu Tung, son-in-law of Chow Tai Fook’s founder, Chow Chi-yuen, took over the business in the 1950s and expanded the company into a massive conglomerate with interests including real estate (via developer New World). hospitality, and energy.
Cheng’s granddaughter, Sonia Cheng, is now vice president and executive director of the jewelry business; He is also the CEO of the Rosewood Hotel Group, owned by the family conglomerate (also known as Chow Tai Fook).
Lieou sees Chow Tai Fook’s long track record as an asset as he thinks about modernizing the brand. “There is so much history. It’s very easy to extrapolate cultural elements and use them in design.”
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“Creating something new is more difficult; to create from something—to reference something culturally significant—is easier,” he continued.
A recent example is the retailer’s “Gate” collection, which sells iconography of traditional gates found in historic Chinese buildings. But combining cultural details with modern styles can be difficult: a collection of diamond bracelets requires 26 different parts to be assembled, Lieou explains.
“(The artisans) weren’t too happy about it,” he admitted. Chow Tai Fook human artisans use traditional techniques to assemble each piece of jewelry. (Although new technologies also have a role to play, such as “5D gold”, a process that hardens pure gold to make it more durable).
This involves constant negotiation between designers and artisans to turn concepts into viable reality: “We really rely on the knowledge of generations of artisans.”
But, for Lieou, this back-and-forth is part of the design’s appeal. “Design, to me, is about solving problems,” he said. “How do we solve this design challenge in an aesthetic way?”
The scale of the rebrand is clear from Chow Tai Fook’s new flagship store. Two other stores, still carrying the old brand, are literally steps away, on the same 500-foot stretch of road.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Lieou said. “People are creatures of habit, especially when you’re buying jewelry. Generally, you go to the same (store) where you bought your first engagement ring, your first important watch.”
“The relationships we have with our customers are very meaningful.”
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