Damien Dernoncourt

Green Luxury

JEWELLERY BRAND JOHN HARDY is proof that luxury and sustainability can go hand in hand. Damien Dernoncourt, the man who took the Balinese company to the next level, is not only keen on developing a green business, but also passionate about doing it in concert with his employees. Along with Head Designer and Creative Director Guy Bedarida, Hong Kong-based Dernoncourt is making waves with the latest John Hardy men’s store, at The Landmark, and laying plans for mainland China.

It’s been five years since you bought the John Hardy brand. How has the company changed since then?
I’ve been with the company for nearly nine years now. When Guy arrived, they didn’t really have a designer in the company apart from John, and when I arrived they wanted someone to run the business. So the first four years we tripled the business. That’s how Mr Hardy decided that it was the right time for him to sell the company. We didn’t have a massive change, because we were already part of this company.

We really reinforced the key attributes of the brand – how do you move from John the man to John Hardy the brand? It was really an evolution. I didn’t say, “Let’s do a 360 and change everything.” You can still see that we use the same wood, the same bamboo, the same silver and the same know-how. In Bali you have a lot of artisans. You have these amazing talents, because for generations and generations they have been doing this, and the encounter with Guy makes the pieces absolutely incredible. It’s about this encounter between designers and artisans. So it’s a people story.

Has the style of the jewellery changed?
The chain is a very important motif for us. Every single piece at the compound is made by hand. That’s a very big characteristic of who we are, and at our price point no one is doing our quality. Each piece is different, depending on the artisan who is doing it and the designers who have created it. Most of the silver is done by husband and wife. So the wife is taking care of the fire while the husband is having his kopi luwak [laughs]. And then he takes the piece from the fire and hammers like crazy, while his wife is relaxing.

What are your plans to grow the business?
The way we do business is very important to us. There is a relationship with our employees. We take very good care of them. One of our objectives is to show in the next five years that the more you give, the more you receive. We give them 20 percent more than the market, and if they arrive on time in the morning, we give them a thank-you bonus. We give them insurance for their families and we give them organic food every day. The more you do all of this, the more people will care about you. Therefore, they’re careful with the quality, they stay with you and they watch each other, so you don’t have anyone stealing anything. You don’t have a big turnaround, and you don’t have to rehire and train the people again. It’s good for the people, and it’s good for the company.

The brand has been doing well, but what are some of the challenges you face? Many people probably don’t know that John Hardy is no longer with the brand.
We still have some people sending us emails through our website, saying, “Dear John.” But it’s not that often. I think this was a very successful transformation. The challenge is the people in the company. It involves a lot of time, care, love and dedication to have great people around you. In the last four years we built a very cool team – here, in New York, in Bali and in Bangkok, where we do all the stone work. We have very committed and educated people, and it’s the most precious thing we have. We spend money on people, and it’s a group of people who want to make a difference together. It’s got nothing to do with big assets.

Your company gets involved in environmental causes.
We care about the environment, not because it’s cool to be green but because it’s important for the people. Two years ago I started to refuse to have visitors [to the Bali compound] on Saturdays and Sundays. We have 10,000 visitors a year. It’s a beautiful place, but without the employees, there’s no soul. On a weekday, people are working and they’re smiling. The best compliment I get is when people say, “We can feel there is something special happening here.” We feed our workers for lunch every day. Good food – happy people. Happy people – good work.

What are some of the challenges of being a “green” brand?
It’s a big commitment. I think being green today is very different from being green five years ago. The purpose of being green is always to be ahead. Today, at least 80 percent of our material is recycled, and for each piece in the bamboo collection, we plant bamboo trees. Last year we planted 600,000 bamboo seedlings. It’s four-and-a-half times the size of Central Park. We also created a recyclable envelope for our packaging. So the retailers receive our products in an envelope that they can send back to us. If we use the envelope three times, we’re breaking even. If we can use it four times we’re actually saving money. We don’t use 100 percent recycled silver. There is still some silver coming from the ground. But as long as you build your business to take care of your people, and you’re really working towards that, there are no big challenges in being a green company. There are many opportunities. We’re trying to find the best people to build a dream together, and I really think we can make a difference by being an example. We want to make a difference in the way people perceive luxury.

What is your take on luxury today?

I would say that luxury is dead. There are very, very few brands that are doing what we’re doing. Luxury 15 years ago was for a few hundred thousand people in the world. Today, luxury is for millions of consumers. Some big brands had a massive commercial success, but the product they’re selling today has nothing to do with the product they were selling 20 years ago. It’s not good or bad, it’s just different. If we should have luxury, I think it should be sustainable.