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Fashion Cents
A century-old Connecticut manufacturer thrives in a fickle industry
by fusing traditional craftsmanship with innovative marketing
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Business New Haven
11/17/1997
By: Clement L. Russo
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Paris. New York. Rome.
Meriden?
If you made a list of the world's fashion capitals, Meriden, Connecticut might not immediately come to mind. But Meriden is the home, in fact, of one of the biggest makers of fashion jewelry anywhere: the Napier Co.
Competing against such industry giants as Monet, Liz Claiborne and Anne Klein, Napier supplies women across the U.S. and in Britain with more than 100,000 ready-to-wear fashion accessories each week, most of them gold- and silver-plated chains, necklaces, bracelets and earrings.
Distributing primarily to big-name department store chains like Filene's, Napier operates from three locations - a manufacturing plant in Meriden, a design facility in Providence, R.I., and a sales and marketing office in New York. If you visited the Meriden site, you might expect to see a highly automated manufacturing system, one befitting a $40 million company that produces close to ten million pieces of costume jewelry a year. But what you'd see instead might surprise you.
There, in a well-maintained factory reminiscent of a bygone era, trained craftspeople meticulously apply traditional jewelry-making techniques developed generations ago. In one area, workers equipped with protective eyeware use small lathes to hand-polish the silver and gold finishes on bracelets and necklaces, while workers in another room painstakingly affix rhinestones onto earring hoops.
Though the process may seem antiquated, it's really the secret behind the company's reputation and longevity.
Recognized within the fashion industry for the fine quality of its products, Napier officials are especially proud of their company's silver-plated jewelry, which has become increasingly popular with consumers in recent years. But retaining the time-honored manufacturing approach that assures this high level of quality can sometimes create hiring problems.
“It's not always easy these days to find people who have the skills that are required to execute this kind of work,” explains Doug Schaefer, the company's director of operations. “So we've had to reintroduce an apprentice system, much like in the old days, and that's helped us to maintain the craftsmanship that our company has always been famous for.”
The oldest costume jewelry manufacturer in the nation, the Napier Co. was founded in 1875 as the Whitney & Rice Co. in North Attleboro, Mass., where it first made gilt watch chains for men. It moved to Meriden in 1890 and was renamed in 1923, shortly after the appointment of James H. Napier as president.
Growing steadily over the next five decades, Napier widened its customer base and expanded its product line into two main categories: basic and fashion. “Basic jewelry, which now accounts for about 60 percent of our sales, includes items that rarely go out of style, like stud and hoop earrings,” explains Darcy Davenport, Napier's director of sales and inventory control. “Fashion jewelry is trendier, however, and requires more frequent design changes.”
By introducing innovative packaging and broadening its distribution channels, Napier expanded aggressively throughout the 1970s and '80s, even entering into a licensing agreement with the Walt Disney Co. But during the early 1990s Napier's revenues began to slide, partly because of the weakening retail sales environment and partly because of management decisions that backfired.
“As in other companies at that time, management felt that offshore manufacturing was the best way to go, so it was decided that about 70 percent of our production would be moved,” explains Schaefer. “But the result was a widening gap between operations and sales, and we were losing the ability to respond adequately to our marketplace.”
To lower overhead costs and help make the company more responsive to customers, Napier initiated a major restructuring program in 1994 with the help of an outside turnaround specialist. Unnecessary layers of management were eliminated and manufacturing operations were consolidated in Meriden, allowing for direct daily contact between the executive staff and the shop floor.
“It was a painful process for us, because we never in our history had to go through that kind of restructuring,” recalls Schaefer. “But removing all those excess layers helped us to move faster and has given us a competitive edge. Where it used to take us 12 to 14 weeks to deliver a new product, now we can do it in less than two.”
Since then, the company has introduced several innovative sales and marketing techniques that have helped to increase revenues, reduce inventories and enhance relationships with distributors. One is the use of “flash sell-throughs,” which allow for almost instantaneous feedback from the marketplace on what's selling and what isn't.
“We used to determine whether or not a product was a winner by how many we moved out the door,” says Davenport. “But now our field representatives are responsible for tracking how many items are actually sold over the counter. That way, if a particular product is really hot, we can start on a second run right away and ship it to the store immediately.”
Davenport also helped to introduce the concept of the “regionalized basic” - a product that may continue to sell well in one area of the country even though it's snubbed by shoppers elsewhere - which grew out of her experience as a sales rep years ago in Texas.
“When the minimalist look was at its peak in America, a lot of women in Texas simply refused to follow the trend and kept on buying big pieces of jewelry,” she says. “So now we make sure we have in stock those items that women in certain regions always seem to want, no matter what fashion dictates. In the past, those were customers that we would have overlooked.”
Schaefer believes that by forging a close partnership between operations and sales, Napier is better positioned to compete today and has improved its prospects for extending an already lengthy corporate life into yet another century. “Our turnover is faster, we've reduced inventories by 30 percent, and we're experiencing double-digit sales increases in some regions,” he says.
Experimenting in several areas, the company now markets a retro line that duplicates antique jewelry designs and is capitalizing on the growing popularity of silver by launching a new line in that metal. “We're always looking for different avenues to grow Napier,” says Schaefer, “and initial indications are that our sterling line is going to be very good for us.”
Of course, nothing is certain in an industry that's strongly influenced by mercurial designers and fickle consumer tastes. But Schaefer says he believes that Napier will survive as long as it maintains a clear focus on its corporate mission (“to give customers the best value for their jewelry dollar”) and continues to gain increased control over the supply chain - all the way to the customer.
It also doesn't hurt to be making and marketing a product that, right now, just happens to be tres chic. Fresh from a major showing to distributors in New York, an industry tradition that Napier participates in five times annually, Davenport says that the “look” now is extremely favorable to the costume jewelry industry.
“A few years ago runway models weren't even wearing earrings. But the minimalist look is out,” she says. “The majority of designers are accessorizing now. And that's great for the jewelry business.”
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