Sources inform ''Globes'' that Magnolia Silver Jewelry Ltd. is considering floating on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The chain has 37 stores in Israel and 11 overseas, and had a turnover of NIS 70 million in 2005. The company has 350 employees, and is considered Israel’s largest jewelry chain.
Magnolia Silver Jewelry CEO Ehud Cohen founded the company nine years ago. All the stores are operated by franchises, except in Hungary, which is operated through a subsidiary.
Last January, Magnolia Silver Jewelry opened two new stores in Poland and one in New York at an investment of NIS 1 million. The new stores join the company’s eight overseas stores: two each in Canada, the US and Hungary, and one each in the Czech Republic and Australia.
Magnolia Silver Jewelry’s international turnover is approximately $3 million a year; the turnover of each store is estimated at $300,000. The overseas stores, like the ones in Israel, are all situated in malls, and are highly accessible to shoppers. The mix of goods in the overseas stores is the same as the mix in Israel.
Cohen said today, “The company considered an issue nine months ago, but it was not carried out. There’s no certainty that we’ll decide to float the company at all.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 20, 2006
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