Company Spotlight
March 2010
The magic of Miglio
Miglio Designer Jewellery is the fastest growing direct selling business in the UK and is now looking to expand into Europe. As the company embarks on a major recruitment drive to meet the rapidly increasing demand for its products, Madeline Clark finds out more about the Miglio success story…
MIGLIO Designer Jewellery was established in the UK by joint Managing Directors Sue Dean and Tim Westinghouse in 2003. Today its biggest challenge is keeping up with demand as Miglio becomes one of the hottest names in jewellery.
Recently Dannii Minogue was shown wearing a stunning Miglio piece on the front cover of Cosmopolitan magazine and it seems everyone wants a slice of that Miglio sparkle.
“We feel there is a huge potential market and that people across Europe will love Miglio jewellery,” said joint MD Sue. “We are continuing to grow quite rapidly in the UK and we also do business in Finland and Spain, where we are very interested in further expansion. It’s an exciting time.”
Miglio was originally established in South Africa in 1996 by Mike and Jenny Miller. The UK arm of the company was launched as a completely separate enterprise with Sue and Tim at the helm.
Sue recalled, “Prior to setting up Miglio UK, I ran a small exclusive fashion jewellery company but saw a gap in the UK direct selling market. Then, during a trip to South Africa, I met Mike and Jenny Miller who were the founders of Miglio South Africa, based in Cape Town. I just loved their products and was convinced they would be a great success in the UK.”
Sue continued, “While I was running my other business I had a lot of different manufacturers working for me but what I liked about Miglio was that they were not only designing their products but also manufacturing and selling them, so their jewellery was completely exclusive to Miglio. The quality of it was sensational. It was really different, easy to wear and very fl exible, with something for everybody. What makes it so different is that you can update it and add to it – for example, a bracelet can be made into a necklace by adding an extension chain.”
Since the launch of Miglio UK the company, based at Crewkerne, Somerset, UK, has gone from strength to strength very rapidly. Today it has 1400 Consultants across the UK and Europe and is constantly recruiting.
One exciting new incentive has been the introduction of a new business plan which aims to provide Consultants with ‘a career path for life’.
Sue explained, “We announced this at our January launch, along with our new spring collection and everyone got very excited about it. It is about creating more of a career for our Consultants. There are various spin-offs on three levels and the aim is not only to encourage the super-sellers who can get up to a 40 per cent discount, but to also encourage people to recruit and create a profitable business. The idea is that Consultants can, in their words, eventually get a pension out of their business.”
She added, “We feel the company is now being recognised not just for providing fantastic jewellery but for providing Consultants with a good way of running their own business.”
One of the company’s proudest moments in its seven year history was being nominated in three categories of the UK Direct Selling Association Awards last year. One of Miglio’s top Consultants, Rebekah Patterson, won the prestigious ‘New Direct Seller of the Year’ accolade and the whole company was also shortlisted for the ‘Excellence Award’ out of hundreds of nominees.
Nickola (Nikki) Symes, who has been with the company for four years and who handles recruitment of new Consultants for Miglio from Head Office, was also nominated for the prestigious Support Award.
Sue enthused, “It was a real honour to be part of a company that was so well represented at these awards.
To be shortlisted for three awards and to be praised for the great work that everyone at Miglio does was very rewarding.”
“We feel the company is now being recognised not just for providing fantastic jewellery but for providing Consultants with a good way of running their own business.”—Sue Dean
Sue is convinced that being a relatively small business gives Miglio the edge over similar direct selling companies because it enables them to offer a ‘close up and personal’ approach. “Tim and I operate an open door policy and we are very accessible on the phone to all Consultants, thereby creating a family atmosphere,” she explained. “We feel it is very important that Consultants can come to us directly with any queries. Even though we are growing very quickly, we feel it is still vital that we are able to keep the door open and are always at the end of the phone.”
Miglio’s top selling product is its enhancer collection which enables Consultants to create their own ‘Hero’ necklaces – so called because each necklace created is one of a kind. Enhancers also provide the opportunity to ring the changes by updating an old necklace or bracelet.
“Each ‘Hero’ necklace has its own, exclusive, Miglio look,” Sue pointed out. “You buy the necklace and different enhancers and create your own piece. We also provide extension chains so you can create a necklace out of a bracelet and that is also very popular. You can then use an enhancer to create your own ‘Hero’ piece which no one else will have!”
Sue added, “Instead of investing in new jewellery you can simply give a new look to your existing jewellery.
The basic burnished silver is the same throughout our collections so you can mix and match. It has a very distinctive look, so if you saw someone wearing it as you were walking along the street you would know instantly that it was Miglio jewellery.”
Miglio is proud of the fact that its jewellery is accessible to all. Prices start off at £9.50 and goes up to £240. The company has just launched its latest collection, ELEMENTS, which Sue points out, has been carefully tailored to appeal to people on lower budgets, due to the recession.
“There is a huge choice in our range of jewellery to suit all budgets,” Sue explained. “We also produce earrings that youcan buy different extension pieces for. It’s all fun stuff.”
Meanwhile, Sue is proud of the fact that, although Miglio jewellery is so accessible to ordinary people, it is also being worn by high profile celebrities like Dannii Minogue.
“The bracelet she was seen wearing on the front cover of Cosmopolitan magazine is made out of Swarovski crystal and is stunning,” said Sue. “It is one of our top selling bracelets that can be turned into a necklace by adding an extension chain.”
Miglio keeps its collections fresh by launching new ranges three times a year; in spring, summer and autumn. Its new ELEMENTS collection is a unique, range, which includes 22 carat, gold-plated, limited edition pieces for the first time. The range also includes light azure blue Swarovski crystals, talisman charms and geometric shapes, taking its collections to an exciting new dimension.
Sue feels new Consultants are attracted to the company, not just because of its great products but also because of its reputation. “Many Consultants come to us as a result of personal endorsement and word of mouth,” she explained.
Miglio necklace worn by Dannii Minogue
“We have a very caring family ethos and this makes our Consultants feel like stakeholders in the business. Our Consultants mainly sell through parties because there is nothing more fun than girls getting together over a glass of wine and trying on jewellery. Parties are definitely our most successful method of selling our jewellery.”
Sue feels it is vital to keep up with ever changing means of communication in order to tell the Miglio story. “We make full use of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking channels,” she said.
“The other way we help our Consultants is that we give them their own ‘My Miglio’ website which has also been extremely successful. Our Consultants are able to change them around as they so wish and our catalogues are also loaded onto the websites. This means that they are now able to sell directly to their customers online, which helps them enormously.”
Meanwhile, the only big challenge Sue feels the company is facing at the moment is the challenge of meeting the growing demand for Miglio jewellery as its collections become more and more popular. But as far as Sue is concerned, this is a very welcome and positive challenge. “We are fortunate in that we have a great team at Head Office who work extremely hard to keep our stockroom topped up,” she pointed out. All Miglio jewellery is made in South Africa then despatched from the Miglio UK Head Office in Somerset.
“Many Consultants come to us as a result of personal endorsement and word of mouth.” —Sue Dean
Through its close links with South Africa, Miglio UK has become very involved with the The Homestead charity, which supports street children there. Every year 75 per cent of the profit on certain pieces of jewellery goes to the nonprofit making charity. Sue and Tim visit the charity once a year so they can personally present the street children with a cheque.
“There is a great deal of satisfaction among ourselves and our Consultants that, through running a successful business, we are also helping these street children. When we go over to South Africa we see for ourselves the good we are doing and just how grateful the children are. Unlike many big corporations we don’t demand that the money we raise goes on anything specific. We are happy for the charity to use it for the children’s benefit and we also provide the component parts to allow them to make the special Homestead pieces for our collection.”
Meanwhile, Miglio is proud of its reputation as one of the UK’s leading distributors of designer jewellery and Sue is confident the company’s success story will continue to go from strength to strength across the UK and Europe. “Our immediate goal is to continue to be the best purveyor of quality jewellery from manufacturer to end user,” she said.
“At the moment so many people are clocking in and saying they want to join us and this is all very exciting.”
To find out more about Miglio visit the website at http://www.miglio.co.uk, which includes details about The Homestead charity.
Celebrating success
More than 180 Miglio Consultants celebrated the company’s success at the annual Miglio Designer Jewellery Spring Convention in January. Many of those who attended also scooped awards for their own outstanding achievements over the last year.
Rebekah Patterson from Belfast, Miglio’s youngest consultant, won Consultant of the Year for the second year running, also picking up prizes for Top Personal Sales and Top Group Sales. Newcomer Mel Walker, in Rebekah’s team, picked up Best Newcomer with Helen Gourley, from Scotland, winning Business Builder of the Year.
Prizes were also awarded to Amanda Prideaux from Hampshire for her Team Sales and to Christine Carr from Yorkshire for being the Consultant to Go the Extra Mile (including digging herself out of the snow twice for parties and to recruit).
Nineteen people also won tickets for the 2010 incentive trip to Istanbul, which was the highest number of Consultants in Miglio’s history to qualify.
Consultants at the event - held at the Forest of Arden Hotel near Birmingham - attended a series of workshops and heard presentations from joint managing directors Tim Westinghouse and Sue Dean.
There were also presentations from Colour Me Beautiful’s Cliff Bashforth, eNable’s Matthew van Gessel, on making the most of MyMiglio websites, and Miglio PR Manager Sarah Wolf, on how the Consultants can best market their businesses.
Consultants at the event were also given the chance to inspect the latest, limited-edition ELEMENTS collection, which ‘went down a storm’, according to joint MD Sue Dean.
