San Saru jewelry, born on the internet in 2015, will open a store in Madrid after landing in the physical world with its first opening in Barcelona, in July. The forecast is to settle in the capital before the end of the year to catch the Christmas season. The expansion is part of a larger deployment with which it wants to have 12-15 stores by the end of 2024. The goal is to be multi-channel and reduce dependency online, also adding wholesale and presence in marketplaces such as Amazon or Zalando. .
DNA is digital. San Saru emerged in Mataró after a trip to India by the founding couple, Borja Pundik and Carolina Álvarez. They returned loaded with jewels and were giving them away to family and friends. They saw that they liked them, some were left over and they launched a community on Instagram. It was well received and gave birth to an opportunity: Pundik began to study jewelry and they began to import products from Asia. Then they launched their own design, with increasing local manufacturing: by the end of the year, 90% will be manufactured in Spain, half in Mataró through third parties. Before, it depended on Italy or Asia, and bringing production close by "allows for high manufacturing control and a new collection can be released in 3-4 weeks," explains Pundik. The co-founder defines the range as boho chic, with the use of silver, gold and natural stone.
With years focused on the web, the pandemic e-commerce pull “was like a constant Christmas.” In 2020 alone, it doubled sales, to 9 million euros. With the growth, it has sought to diversify channels "to have a more solid structure, not live only online". Opening in Barcelona has meant investing around 170,000 euros. The forecast was that it would contribute 400,000 euros to the turnover (3%-4%), but if it holds up to the good pace of the start-up, it can go to a million. Pundik points out that 60% of the store's customers did not know them before.
Future stores will require less spending (100,000-120,000 euros), since factors such as design are not repeated. Among the plans is considering reaching shopping centers. In addition, with the wholesale sale it also reaches unexpected places, such as Cyprus. And although the public is usually women between 25-35 years old, the launch of capsules for men is final.
With all this, the goal is to exceed 10 million invoiced for the first time in 2023, after 8 million in 2022. The average ticket is around 50 euros – “we do not have a high sale price”, he says – and Spain is 60 % about the sales. In the rest, Italy, France or Germany stand out. After an adjustment last year by oversizing due to the pandemic push, today it employs about 50 people.
