The Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) is celebrating women in the jewelry industry this month with its “March is Me” campaign. Garfield is a proud WJA member, and we’re participating in the campaign by highlighting the many contributions of women in the jewelry industry.
To kick off the month-long campaign, we’re showcasing Kendra Scott, an entrepreneur from Austin, TX, who started a jewelry company that’s now valued at more than $1 billion. Scott founded her company (Kendra Scott LLC) in 2002, just after her first child was born. Truly working her way from the bottom up, she founded the company with only $500 from her own savings.
The rest, they say, is history. Scott’s designs were featured at high-end runway shows in 2005 and 2006, but her business took a hit during the 2009 financial crisis. That didn’t stop her, though.
Scott opened her first retail store in Austin, TX, in 2010 and launched an e-commerce business that same year. By 2014, Scott began opening retail stores throughout the Midwest and South. Then in 2016, she sold a minority stake of her company to a private equity firm at a valuation of $1 billion!
Family, fashion, philanthropy
At the end of 2019, Scott’s company had more than 100 retail stores. Her e-commerce business is strong, and her company also sells its merchandise in stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, and more than 1,000 specialty boutiques worldwide.
Scott has achieved all this as a working mom (she has three children) and staying true to her company’s core values of Family, Fashion, and Philanthropy. As a philanthropist, she launched the Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at the University of Texas and has donated more than 75,000 pieces of jewelry.
Scott also believes strongly in creating workplaces that support women. Ninety-five percent of the more than 2,000 people who work for Kendra Scott LLC are women, and her company has a robust benefits package for working moms, including 100% paid parental leave.
Support women in jewelry
Help support amazing women in jewelry like Kendra Scott by sharing this article and checking out WJA’s March is Me campaign.
And if you’re looking to sell unwanted jewelry, look no further than Garfield Refining. Call us today at (888) 677-5275 to get the process started and get more for your precious metal scrap!