PDPaola Scales Business With Aggressive Retail Plans

Paola Sasplugas, cofounder and creative director of Barcelona-based PDPaola, was working as an architect when she started designing jewelry for friends and family. She launched a web site and sold $25 million worth of jewelry to people she never met. It was time to quit her day job.

In the last five months, PDPaola has moved into retail, opening 45 stores in London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Shanghai and Beijing, among other places. Five stores bowed in Saudi Arabia.

Now the brand is set to spread its wings in North America with Jason McNary appointed as CEO of the region. McNary knows Spain and jewelry. He was CEO of North American and Latin American markets of Uno de 50, a popular jewelry brand based in Madrid.

“We resonate with fashion customers,” McNary said, adding, “We sit at the intersection of fashion and jewelry. The North American business is going to scale,” McNary said, adding that Signet holds a minority stake in the company.

“I met Umberto [CEO of PDPaola, and Paola’s brother] last year and we started speaking about the North American market,” McNary said. “We came to an agreement that I would lead North America and become CEO of the North American territory. Our goals are ambitious.”

McNary said PDPaola and Uno de 50 are as different as they could be. The former, features delicate designs embellished with diamonds, and the latter takes its cues from the organic shapes of nature.

“We want to create pieces that are simultaneously contemporary and timeless,” said Sasplugas, “so that they can accompany your current and future self – and maybe even your future generations.”

“We’re a jewelry brand but we design unconditionally, ardently and boldly,” McNary said, adding that $85 is the entry level price point for the aspirational luxury brand, which creates demi fine and fine jewelry priced over $7,000. Designs come in silver and gold and there is an 18-karat gold offering.

The company has been selling online in the U.S. for two years and has stores in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Houston. “We’re going to follow where that customer is online,” said McNary.

PDPaola is planning to open two to three stores in North America this year and 15 in 2025. “We believe this brand can get to 100 stores in North America,” McNary said. “We’re having conversations with Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Hudson Bay. We see an opportunity for concession environments. We’re talking to Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, and also Revolve and Forward.

“We also see ourselves in specialty boutiques where there’s a penetration of luxury as opposed to a jewelry store, which is not so appealing to us,” McNary said. “We know how to operate franchises and have franchises all over the world.”

PDPaola’s DNA includes values such as creativity, family, humbleness, confidence and boldness. “Each one of our values is of equal importance and they show up in the designs. We design with trends in mind, but don’t follow trends.”