Our 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.