History
-
1997Our early history was not so glamorous. The owners, Avi Kaplan and Thierry Chausse met in Korea. Avi was working there as a buying agent and Thierry was going there often to buy goods to sell in Indonesia and Thailand. In early 1997, Avi told Thierry about this new product he found in the market in Seoul: Body piercing jewelry!
Thierry told Avi this was a great idea and that he should go ahead and try to sell body jewelry to Japan. Then Thierry left Korea.
A few months later, Thierry came back to Korea and again Avi told him about this new product. Thierry said: What, you did not start yet!!!
So they decided they would sell the jewelry together. Avi started buying Body jewelry in the market in Korea and sent it to Thierry to Thailand. Thierry would then go to Customs to clear the parcels and then hop on his motorcycle and go sell the jewelry to Tattoo shops in Bangkok. Those were the days when the company stock of body jewelry would fit in a small back pack… No employees, no office but lots of motivation to succeed.
From tattoo and piercing shops, Thierry started selling to silver jewelry wholesalers around Kao San road which was then one of the main silver jewelry wholesale markets in Thailand. Business picked up and from a small back pack, the inventory grew to a large metal box that Thierry kept in his apartment.
1998In early 1998, Thierry moved the stock into the shop of a Thai Chinese friend in Kao san road. The stock grew again and so did the business. Suddenly, Thierry and the shop staffs started filling orders that came by e-mail or fax. In February 1998, they did their first “Bangkok Gems and Jewelry show” to try to get more International customers.
See more pictures
-
1998 August 3rdSalamander Jewelry Co., Ltd was officially opened.
1999In 1999, the Narayana Phand shop was officially opened in the center of Bangkok. That shop lasted until March 2007 when the shopping plaza closed for renovations.
-
2000 DecemberThierry opened our first real office in Rambutri road behind Kao San Road. The ground floor became our main showroom and we used the top 3 floors as our office, stock room and assembly section. We soon had almost 100 workers working in that small building and it was time to make another move.
See more pictures
-
2001 OctoberIn October 2001, Avi and Thierry bought shares in the factory of their main supplier in Korea: E-ring Co., Ltd. We were now officially manufacturers.
See more pictures
-
2002 NovemberIn November 2002, the Rambutri office was becoming too small. Thierry bought a 4 stories building close buy and turned it into a production center for all the silver jewelry.
See more pictures
-
2003 MarchWe bought a silver jewelry supplier: Oz International Co., Ltd and started casting and polishing our own jewelry instead of using sub-contractors. Of course, Oz had their own office so we now had three different production locations.
-
2004 Februarywe moved to our new office in Pin Klao Road. It was a major logistical project at the time as we had to move tools and material from three different offices. We did it over 2 weekends and manage to remain in operations the whole time. That new office was a 9 stories building with almost 1750 square meters of space.
See more pictures
-
2005 SeptemberFinally Avi and Thierry bought out their Korean partner and started the process of moving the Korean factory to Thailand. Avi moved to Thailand and we started reducing the workforce in Korea. When the process was over in 2008, we only had a buying office left in Korea with 2 workers to buy materials and ship them to our Thai factory.
-
2006 JanuaryTragedy struck in January 2006. A fire took out the whole 6th floor of the office. Fortunately, no one was injured but it was time to move. In 3 days after the fire, not only did we manage to clean up the whole building but also to rewire all the electricity on the 6th floor, repaint all the walls, fix the windows, repair the machines and start work again
See more pictures
-
2007 JulyLand was bought on the outskirts of Bangkok in the province of Nakhon Pathom and in December 2006, work began on our actual factory. This 3000 square meters facility is build on 2 floors and was finished in July 2007.
See more pictures
