National Jeweler’s Retailer Hall of Fame Returns

New York--National Jeweler is bringing back yet another popular feature.

For the first time in five years, the jewelry trade magazine is naming jewelers to its Retailer Hall of Fame and honoring them with a special issue that will be published in mid-May.

National Jeweler first introduced the Retailer Hall of Fame in 1989 as a way to recognize jewelers who have made significant contributions to jewelry retailing and inspired their peers.

Each year between 1989 and 2012, the publication inducted retailers in three categories based on their store’s size: single-store independent, multi-store independent and majors.

For 2017, the inductees are as follows.
-- Single-store independent: John Henne, Henne Jewelers, Pittsburgh
-- Multi-store independent: Sissy Jones, Sissy’s Log Cabin, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
-- Majors: Jean-Christophe Bédos, Birks Group Inc., Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Henne is the owner and president of Henne Jewelers in Pittsburgh and is the fourth generation to run the store that his great-grandfather, Rudolph Joseph Henne, opened in 1887.

Located in the city’s upscale Shadyside neighborhood, Henne Jewelers has been named the “Best Jeweler” in the city by Pittsburgh Magazine every year since 2009 and, under Henne’s leadership, the store also has been honored for its ethics and workplace culture.

Henne serves as the chair-elect of Jewelers of America’s board of directors.

Jones opened an antiques and jewelry store in a literal log cabin in 1970 and since has grown the business to four stores, in Pine Bluff, Jonesboro and Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee.

Over the course of her career, she has received numerous accolades, including the Arkansas Jewelers Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Retailer of the Year Award from the Women’s Jewelry Association and the 2015 Arkansan of the Year award from Easter Seals.

She also is an inductee into another Hall of Fame, that of the WJA, which honored Jones at its event this past July.

Bédos started his career in the jewelry industry 29 years ago at Cartier, rising to become the iconic brand’s managing director in France between 2002 and 2004 and international executive manager alongside the president of parent company Richemont from 2000 to 2002.

From May 2004 to June 2011, he was the president and CEO of Boucheron International, which is owned by Kering (formerly PPR).

Birks hired Bédos as its new president and CEO in April 2012.

The company, which ranks No. 21 on the 2016 $100 Million Supersellers and No. 22 on the Top 50 Retail Jewelry Chains by store count lists, operates Birks stores in Canada and as well as Mayors stores in the southeastern United States.