PARIS — Put a ring on it.
Back when Gemmyo started in 2011, that was easier said than done. In fact, the business took shape as a result of founders Pauline Laigneau and Charif Debs’ frustration at their own engagement ring shopping experience.
In the space of 15 years, a milestone that will be marked with a Paris soiree in early July, the company has leveraged its initial digital-first model of highly personalizable jewels made to order in France, into a business with some 100 employees.
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According to Sophie Garric, Gemmyo’s chief executive officer of two years, growth has been “above 20 percent on average” year-on-year since the beginning.
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From Day One, the jeweler was a hit with time-poor but research-driven customers looking for what they consider fairly priced options for personal milestones. They are typically aged between 25 and 40 and are often professionals such as doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs.
Through early traction came through bridal, still a major segment, a focus on colored gems that continues with new collections such as this year’s Gemmyorama has helped it avoid being pigeonholed.
“It’s not a success that was built only on external growth, it’s a real success of natural organic growth,” she continued. “It isn’t built only on prices but also on volumes, not solely on openings but on growing existing points of sale, so it’s very healthy and made to last.”
While it still does 40 percent of its business online, 40 percent now comes from its brick-and-mortar presence, which has grown to nine doors, most in France. The remaining share comes from a phygital approach that blends both in-person and virtual moments.
Nowadays, they are comfortable making significant purchases digitally as long as the experience is clear, guided and human, said Garric, who pointed out that its largest-yet online sale topped 60,000 euros.
Gemmyo is now plotting the next step of its expansion outside Europe, building on the signal received from Japan, where it opened a permanent Tokyo boutique in late 2024.
Going into the market without a distributor was a bold move that paid off, with the brand booking 2 million euros in sales in its first year, said the executive. Initially a modest 2 percent share of business, the Japanese market leapfrogged to third-largest market, right behind France, which still takes the lion’s share at 80 percent, and Switzerland.
For now, sales outside France account for 20 percent overall for the privately owned company. Garric said ambitions were to increase that share to half of the business within the next few years, a timeline that is intentionally flexible owing to a preference for “hidden gem” opportunities over forced roadmaps, a stance afforded by the company’s independence — Laigneau and Debs upped their stake to 80 percent of the capital in 2025, with the remaining 20 percent made of “love money”-type investors.
The CEO is confident that by 2027, the brand will have footholds in North America and continental Asia. If not through permanent stores, it will be as the residency-style format in hotel suites that it currently has in Zurich.
But don’t expect a store in the U.S., where it has suspended shipping for the time being due to tariff-driven logistics constraints, or a Chinese rollout. Garric said the destinations on the horizon within the next two years were Canada, with Montreal in particular, and South Korea.
Creatively, the anniversary year also marks a new chapter.
Last year, Laigneau formally took on the role of creative director, and this remit is expressed in bolder design moves such as the introduction of “Les Variations de Gemmyo,” a new category positioned between its core fine jewelry and high jewelry. These one-off pieces start around 10,000 euros and could go up to, say, 100,000 euros.
Case in point, the EverBloom collection of floral-inspired designs that hinges on colored stones and offers a range from delicate understated to more opulent options. Additions include a green-toned assortment built around unheated green sapphires from Tanzania, one of Gemmyo’s signature stones.
Calibrating these color gradients to ensure clients receive what they saw online remains a key element in perceived value.
Having and preserving the know-how necessary for all those moves is what led the company to invest in long-term partner Callistorea, a 50-year-old jewelry workshop located in Nice.
The move is as much about securing a supply chain at a time where large groups are buying up ateliers, which can create bottlenecks for independents, as it is about making Gemmyo’s commitment to producing in France tangible.
“It was for us a way of really committing because ‘made in France’ is a reality that remains fragile,” Garric said. “Every year, there are workshops that close because they cannot cope” with a landscape where order volumes can fluctuate rapidly.
At a time when soaring gold prices have pushed historic players into ever-higher price brackets, it’s contributing to make Gemmyo’s “respectuous pricing” feel more relevant than ever for Garric.
In the company’s sights is its goal of reaching 100 million euros in sales by 2029 while remaining self-financed and independent, with likely double or triple the number of stores globally.
“The biggest opportunity is to capitalize on our expertise and go scale it a little faster than planned in a number of [markets] because the profitability accumulated allows us to accelerate faster, stronger,” the Gemmyo CEO said.