fortunoff

Fortunoff Launches New Jewelry Website

Filed under: Jewelry

Just in time for the holidays, Fortunoff is back.The The outdoor furniture and jewelry store brand filed Chapter 11 and was liquidated last year. But now Fortunoff is back selling fine jewelry through a new online destination, FortunoffJewelry.com.

Fortunoff was founded by 1922 by Max and Clara Fortunoff in Brooklyn, New York and became a popular retailer of jewelry and home furnishings, outdoor furniture, bed and bath, tabletop and gifts. The brand was owned and operated by the Fortunoff and Mayrock families for four generations. In 2005, members of the two families sold a majority stake in the business to two private equity firms, selling off the remainder of their equity in Fortunoff a couple years later. By February 2008, Fortunoff had filed Chapter 11. Another private equity firm, NRDC, purchased it and planned to put Fortunoff shops in Lord and Taylor department stores. Those plans fizzled and Fortunoff went out of business in 2009. Now back in the hands of the founding Fortunoff family, Fortunoff Fine Jewelry has created the new e-commerce site with future plans for eventual brick-and-mortar destinations. The shop features designs by Natasha Wozniak, Judith Jack, Misha of N.Y. and the Black & White Vintage Collection. The piece shown at right features black diamonds set in white gold on an agate base and sells for $1,795.

The company also has reopened the Fortunoff Backyard Store, which sells outdoor furniture and seasonal decorations at locations in New Jersey and New York.

Tags: black diamonds, fortunoff, fortunoff backyard stores, fortunoff jewelry

Fortunoff Plans Line Of Outdoor Furniture Stores

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Fortunoff is back in business, well, sort of. The outdoor furniture and jewelry store brand filed Chapter 11 and was liquidated earlier this year. However, the name may live on. The Chair King, a Texas outdoor furniture store chain, has purchased a controlling interest in Furniture Concepts, a company created by two former Fortunoff execs and a member of the Fortunoff family. Furniture Concepts owns licensing rights to the Fortunoff brand of outdoor furniture and seasonal products in the United States. The plan is to open six Fortunoff Backyard Stores on Long Island and New Jersey on Feb. 1, 2010. There are no plans to bring back the jewelry side of the Fortunoff business.

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Tags: chair king, ChairKing, fortunoff, furniture store, FurnitureStore, outdoor furniture, OutdoorFurniture

Tommy Hilfiger's New Fifth Avenue Store

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Apparel

The former Fortunoff store on Fifth Avenue in New York City has a new tenant, Tommy Hilfiger. The new store will have more Tommy Hilfiger products than of its other stores ranging from runway fresh designs to simple polo shirts, a mix of luxury and practicality that seems to be the norm these days. Obviously it's a daring move to open a big, expensive store in this economy but if anyone could pull it off it might just be Tommy. Walletpop's Andrea Chalupa took a tour of the new store with the man himself.

Tags: fifth avenue, FifthAvenue, fortunoff, tommy hilfiger, TommyHilfiger

Fortunoff Loose Diamonds Sold At Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

SimplexDiam Inc. has announced a 73 percent recovery in its auction of small loose diamonds belonging to closed jewelry retailer Fortunoff. The auction of stones 70 points and smaller to the trade took place last month. The result was higher than other recent wholesale auctions in the jewelry industry which have recovered between 35-55 percent of the wholesale cost. SimplexDiam values and purchases diamonds and fine jewelry and has been involved in the bidding for the residual inventories in the cases of Friedman's Jewelers, Whitehall Jewelers and Christian Bernard Stores Corp. The company provide services to small jewelry retailers and pawn shops by valuing and purchasing closeout diamonds and jewelry they acquire from individuals and diamond traders.

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Tags: diamonds, fortunoff, simplexdiam

Fortunoff's Remaining Inventory To Be Auctioned Off

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Where does the jewelry from liquidated stores like Whitehall Jewelers and Friedman's end up? What doesn't sell in close-out sales may end up at SimplexDiam a company which was once a manufacturer but has now switched its business plan to buying up the assets of stores. The Wall Street Journal reports that SimplexDiam has bought millions of dollars in leftover inventory from defunct chains and then sells it online and at auction to other retailers. It has been chosen to run an auction of more than $1 million worth of inventory leftover from Fortunoff's bankruptcy liquidation.

Neel Madhvani of SimplexDiam wrote an interesting post on his blog last month where he proposes a strategy for retailers selling to clients. He recommends that stores ask the suppliers what they are trying to get rid of rather than going for what they think they want to buy. Then he says that the trick is to sell the customer on what he terms "an investment stone" rather than an impulse stone. It's an interesting idea but it implies that the customer has to really trust the person doing the selling that they are being sold the stone that is best for them and not just best for the jeweler's bottom line.

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Tags: diamonds, fortunoff, friedman, jewelry, simplexdiam, whitehall

Diamond Sales Struggle but Blue Nile Survives

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Although brick-and-mortar diamond retailers are hurting these days online vendors are staying afloat. Stores such as Finlay's, Shane Co, Whitehall and Fortunoff have closed their doors as diamond sales have frozen in the stale economy. Blue Nile, however, has managed to keep consumers' interest with over 60,000 diamonds and hundreds of settings. Their internet approach educates potential buyers without the pressure of a salesperson. Plus, Blue Nile keeps their inventory costs low, which they pass along to customers, by only purchasing diamonds once the consumer has made their order. That means a 20-40% reduction in price over other retailers. Incredibly, Blue Nile has even competed with Tiffany's engagement ring sales. It just goes to show, sometimes the better deal is more important than that little blue box.

Below is a gallery of some of the world's most expensive engagement rings for your viewing pleasure.

Gallery: World's Most Expensive Engagement Rings

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Tags: bluenile, bluenile.com, bluenilediamonds, diamonds, finlay, fortunoff, shane and co, shane co, ShaneAndCo, ShaneCo, whitehall, zales

Fortunoff Liquidation Sales Start Tomorrow

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Luxury jeweler and home goods retailer Fortunoff has been sold for more than $85 million and the new owners will be liquidating the stores goods. Final sales start tomorrow. A group of seven liquidators Great American Group, Hudson Capital, SB Capital, Tiger Capital, Kimco Realty Services, and jewelry liquidators Bobby Wilkerson Inc and The Gordon Company got final court approval on the sale yesterday. Newsday quotes Scott Bernstein, principal of SB Capital as saying that the sales will continue "until everything is sold."

Some former employees are being called back in to help with the sale which is expected to take around a month or two. Discounts will increase as the weeks go by. And good news for gift card holders, the liquidators have said they will be honored for a certain period of time. It's a sad end to a company which outlasted two World Wars and the Great Depression. The company went in to bankruptcy last year, was bought by NRDC Equity Partners but then filed Chapter 11 again on February 5. It was hoped that a new owner could help the company stay in business but no such offer was forthcoming and so liquidation was the only option.

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Tags: fortunoff, liquidation

Fortunoff Stops Honoring Gift Cards

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

If you happen to be holding a Fortunoff gift card you may be out of luck. The bankrupt luxury goods store has stopped honoring all gift cards in advance of next week's auction of its assets. Bloomberg reports that Fortunoff is working with creditors to find a way to keep accepting the cards but there is no news on when this might happen. Fortunoff is still facing a February 23 deadline for the sale.Fortunoff has closed its Manhattan store and laid off 300 workers, although other stores remain open. Federal bankruptcy law allows companies to stop honoring gift cards after they file Chapter 11.

The NY Daily News tells the story of newlywed Vicki Georgiou, who had received $3,000 worth of Fortunoff gift certificates at her recent wedding. She spent half the total on Monday but when she went back to spend the second half later in the week she found that she could not use the cards. There is a chance that Fortunoff may restore gift card use if it is bought by another company but for now consumers are in limbo.

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Tags: fortunoff, gift cards, GiftCards

Will Anyone Buy Fortunoff?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

I wrote last week about the problems facing Fortunoff, the fine jewelry and furniture retailer. Now as National Jeweler reports, a bankruptcy court judge had decided to allow Fortunoff Fine Jewelry and Silverware LLC's request to auction off its assets (aside from goods obtained on consignment) later this month. The auction is being pushed through quickly partially because Fortunoff is facing a major liquidity crisis and needs help fast if it is to continue as a going concern, the brand has been actively seeking a buyer. The auction will take place at the offices of law firm Sidley Austin LLP, 787 Seventh Ave. in Manhattan on February 23. Those who want a chance to bid on Fortunoff's assets must submit a qualified bid in writing to the offices of Sidley Austin LLP on or before Feb. 19 at 4:00 p.m. The company could be sold in its entirety or a separate bidder could emerge for the company's inventory. Fortunoff is seeking to continue to run an ongoing business but if no buyer emerges then it will likely face liquidation. Finding someone to buy Fortunoff seems an iffy proposition at best currently, especially considering the fact that Fortunoff's main categories of furniture and jewelry are two of the hardest hit sectors. A special website has been set up with information on the bankrptcy filing.

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Tags: bankruptcy, fortunoff

Fortunoff Flounders Again, May Fold

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

More troubles for jewelry and homes goods retailer Fortunoff. The company just announced that it is closing the store at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City now that its lease is up. The jewelry business from there was supposed to move into Lord & Taylor stores but that move may never happen because Fortunoff's parent company, NRDC Equity Partners may either sell the brand or file for bankruptcy protection.

Fortunoff filed for bankruptcy last February which is when NRDC picked them up and promised to open new stores and bring Fortunoff jewelry into Lord & Taylor. NRDC owns Lord & Taylor as well as other retailers including Hudson's Bay Co. Finding someone to buy Fortunoff seems an iffy proposition at best currently, especially considering the fact that jewelry, which is Fortunoff's bread and butter, isn't selling well right now. A more likely scenario is, as Bloomberg reports, a liquidation of merchandise. Yesterday afternoon, Fortunoff spokeswoman Arlene Putterman confirmed to National Jeweler that the company was looking at filing Chapter 11 again.

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Tags: bankruptcy, fortunoff, liquidation

Fortunoff's Charms For Charity For Mother's Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions, Celebrity Shopping, Charity

This year you can give your mother the same gift that a celebrity is giving theirs. Fortunoff has launched Charms for Charity with celebrities such as Brooke Shields, Eva Longoria, Denise Richards, Hayden Panettiere, Keri Russell, Molly Sims and Petra Nemcova. Each selected their favorite gold charms from Fortunoff'charm collection. The bracelets will serve personalized gifts and Fortunoff will create replicas of each of the celebrity designed bracelets to be auctioned off on Portero.com from May 8th through May 17th. One hundred percent of funds raised will benefit the charity of the celebrity's choice. The choice of charms are interesting, for example, Eva Longoria's bracelet, which benefits her charity Eva's Heroes has an Eiffel Tower, a basketball, an umbrella cocktail, drama masks and a heart and cross combination, things which seem to be more about Eva and her upcoming wedding than her mom. Keri Russell's includes three seashells and gardening tools and Brooke Shields's is the blandest of the ones I have seen with a pair of baby shoes, a baby carriage, Empire state building and a present box. You can check out the rest of the designs at the website. Keri and Brooke's bracelets are after the jump.

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Tags: bracelets, brooke shields, BrookeShields, charity, denise richards, eva longoria, fortunoff, mother's day

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