Ex-Past Times MD, John Simpson, has been headhunted to join The Jewellery Channel as European managing director. Part of the VGL group, which has manufacturing plants in India, Thailand, China and Hong Kong and wholesale in mainland Europe and the US, the company also has bricks and mortar stores along the east coast of America trading as Genoa Jewellers. Simpson’s focus will be to oversee the recently launched German operation Der Schmuck Kanal and to develop a transactional German website as well as a transactional UK site with TV streaming of live auctions.
Simpson commented, “The launch of the German channel has gone extremely well and the business growth is just staggering. Basically it’s a mail order business with a TV front end – a very dynamic way of shopping.” On the company’s future plans he said, “We are currently reviewing other European countries and also in a recruitment drive, we’re looking for a finance controller an HR manager and a new head of merchandise. Firstly though, we are concentrating on maximising our return over Christmas and then we’ll see how the development of the site goes.”
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