Dve Smizle on its way to Florida - Jewelry from Belgrade in U.S. shopping malls

The history of jewelry starts few tens of thousands of years ago. The first beads, made of snail shells and stones, were found in the caves of South Africa. Egyptians were decorating themselves with items made of gold, Greeks used shells, sardonyx and silver, while Romans wore sapphires from Sri Lanka, emeralds, amber and Indian diamond crystals. The medieval Luxury Law was forbidding the dresses and jewelry made of pearls, jewels, gold and silver until Napoleon returned a pompous and ostentatious style. The 20th century is the symbol of fake, so-called cocktail jewelry, especially in the periods around the two world wars, and among the most famous designers of our age are Austrian company Swarovski, Joan Colins, Christian Dior...

Ladies in our country have been "beautified" by Dve Smizle for nearly a decade. At first, "fashion" was only imported, while today Dve Smizle is one of the leading manufacturers in the country. Its jewelry is made of anti-allergy materials, decorated with crystals, glass pearls, semiprecious stones, while a large number of necklaces are made of shells, wood, fabrics and other natural materials. The City Fashion company, a part of which is the Dve Smizle brand, has the contract on distribution of Swarovski crystals and it is the only company in the Balkans that has the contract on branding its products made of famous crystal elements (Swarovski Crystalizzed).

- Since 2002, when the first store was opened in Belgrade, Dve Smizle has grown into a broad network of jewelry stores in the capital city. Thanks to the introduction of the franchise concept of business, its jewelry is now available to customers all around Serbia, as well as outside our country. The plan of City Fashion is to conquer the market of Europe next year, while year 2012 should be the turning point in development of the brand since that is when the entrance to the U.S. market is expected - Ljiljana Cakic, who formed Dve Smizle together with her colleague Milica Gavrilovic, starts the story for eKapija.

- City Fashion started the franchise business three years ago and we now have 18 franchises in five countries, including Serbia. Our jewelry can be found in Macedonia (Skopje), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Banja Luka, Doboj, Pale), Croatia (Zagreb, Sibenik), Montenegro (Podgorica, Herceg Novi, Budva, Tivat), and we are currently negotiating with partners in Slovenia. We have recently formed a company in the USA and applied for tenancy in the shopping malls Aventura and Sawgrass Mills. The procedure says we must wait for response for about two years and we hope that we will get a change in 2012 to present our products in the USA, primarily in shopping malls in Florida - said Ms. Cakic.

In Serbia, one can buy Dve Smizle jewelry in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Novi Pazar, Gornji Milanovac, Krusevac and Senta.

- We expand our business by opening our own stores and granting franchises. Only two years after we started the business we had five stores in attractive locations in Belgrade. We started producing our own jewelry in 2008, and we are going to move our production units to Indjija in January 2011 due to the increased scope of work. Our design studio will stay in Belgrade.

According to the words of our interlocutor, the aim is that the production be increased to the level that Dve Smizle jewelry makes two thirds of the offer. For the time being, half of the jewelry is made by City Fashion.

- Semiprecious stones for jewelry are mainly imported from China and the United States of America. We have recently opened a hobby shop, in which we offer the complete range of semi-finished products for decoration.

Modern franchise

Dve Smizle, that is, City Fashion, offers potential partners two forms of cooperation - opening of a franchise store and a franchise corner, that is, placing of a showcase with jewelry within an existing facility.

- The Dve Smizle brand charges nothing for its franchise, and the required investment for starting the business amounts to about 8,000 euros if a new retail facility needs to be opened. The franchisees can distribute Dve Smizle jewelry, imported costume jewelry, as well as semi-finished products. We ask our partners to furnish and brand their outlets by our standards. It is important to point out that all our franchise partners are very satisfied with their operations and that none of them has, so far, closed the shop. When you put the logo of Dve Smizle on your store, you can be sure that the goods will be sold.

The advantages of joining the Dve Smizle franchise system:

-Doing business under the Dve Smizle brand whose offer and quality are easily recognized by customers;

-Education in the methods of sale and doing business, which have proved to be successful;

-Support in work and management of retail facilities;

-The most favorable terms of procurement of goods;

-Continuous support of an expert team in current business operations, marketing and actions of the stores joining the franchise system;

-Support in expansion of retail business and opening of new stores;

-Unique marketing for all retail facilities operating under the name of the brand - all investments in advertising are minimal and made at the request of the franchise partner;

-Existing advertisements on the Internet: web presentation (www.dvesmizle.com), facebook (fan page, group, person) and all websites on the territory of the Balkans with a larger number of visitors;

-Broad network of regular customers all around Europe;

-Margin - difference between the purchase price and the sale price leaves enough space for payment of all costs and making of profit;

-Training for shop clerks (exhibiting jewelry, types of materials, maintenance...);

-No seasonal articles, the whole assortment is available during the whole year;

Dve Smizle successfully cooperates with fashion magazines, designers, stylists and costume designers who use jewelry for the needs of shooting TV shows, movies, fashion shows, theater plays, music videos, advertisements.

- Contracts on cooperation with the most famous TV stations have enabled the presence in the media of the neighboring countries, which has resulted in even greater popularity and opening of a series of franchise stores in Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia - said Ms. Cakic.

T.S.