Bvlgari has expanded its manufacturing facility in Italy to 33,000 square metres, making it the world’s largest precious jewellery manufacturing site. Earlier this spring, Bvlgari added 19,000 square metres to its production facility in Valenza, including a new beginners jewellery school. Designed with sustainability in mind, the expansion incorporates solutions that meet up to 50% of the facility’s energy needs, with the remainder supplied by 100% renewable energy sources. A total of 4,100 solar panels are installed atop its building and parking areas to maintain the site’s original carbon footprint. Currently, Bvlgari employs 1,100 workers at its manufacturing site and plans to increase the workforce to 1,600 by 2029, while also doubling production capacity.
From Rome, Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of Bvlgari and newly appointed CEO of LVMH’s watch division, spoke with Shilpa Dhamija about the brand’s global expansion plans and its enduring connection to India’s age-old expertise in diamond and gemstone craftsmanship.
What motivated Bvlgari to establish a second school for jewellery training at its extended manufacture?
When expanding our manufacturing facility, we dedicated 1,000 sq m to a new beginners’ school – Scuola Bvlgari. With this addition we will now have two complimentary educational and training institutes. Before the Scuola Bvlgari, we had established Bvlgari Jewellery Academy in 2017, which offers advanced training in goldsmithing and gem setting, taking students beyond the basics, and preparing them to create high jewellery. Artisans graduating from the academy are expected to not only execute designs that they receive from the development department but also participate in the creative process at Bvlgari.
Our new school, Scuola Bvlgari is a new beginner-level institute, providing an 18- to 24-month educational program, enabling students to acquire the foundational skills necessary to produce jewellery, though not yet at the high-jewellery level.
These two institutions, together form a structured educational system that aims to function like a full-fledged university for jewellery-making. Students who complete the program at Scuola Bvlgari are free to pursue careers with any company, as there is no obligation to work for Bvlgari. However, those who study in the second training module at the Academy are expected to work with Bvlgari for a certain period.
Is Scuola Bvlgari open to students from around the world?
Priority will be given to students from within the European Union, as certain regulations require us to prioritise European citizens. The same rules apply for recruiting faculty for this school.
Bvlgari has created special jewellery pieces for the Indian market inspired by its local traditions. If the brand plans to continue expanding its India-focused jewellery portfolio, do you reckon that Bvlgari’s training institutes might benefit from the expertise of India’s jewellery making skills?
So far, we have developed two major pieces specifically for the Indian market: the Mangalsutra and the Kada. Both were inspired by ideas from our ambassador and friend Priyanka Chopra. She possesses deep knowledge of both jewellery and Indian aesthetics. She advises us on how to merge the distinct Indian design sensibility into our Bvlgari jewellery without compromising on our Roman DNA so that our brand can resonate more strongly with local Indian buyers.
Priyanka works closely with our creative director, Lucia Silvestri, to build on the more India-specific pieces. For example, the Kada design draws inspiration from the traditional Indian Kada and Bvlgari’s iconic B.zero1 bracelet, blending Indian tradition with our signature Roman identity. We plan to continue creating exclusive, limited-edition jewellery for the Indian market. In fact, we will soon have more meetings with Priyanka to design these.
Bvlgari jewels are made in Italy, and they will always be made in Italy. So, for Indian jewels if we can blend Indian jewellery know-how within our campuses then we have to find a way to do that. We could invite Indian artisans for short periods as trainers to share their knowledge. If we find experts whose skills align with our teaching approach, we’re happy to welcome them.
India has a rich and time-honoured tradition of jewellery and gem craftsmanship. Does Bvlgari work with Indian artisans for its creative or production requirements?
We purchase a lot of our diamonds from India as the diamond cutting skills here are probably the best in the world. Therefore we import already cut and polished diamonds from India, and in Valenza we do the settings of these diamonds; from the smallest ones to the big diamond drops of 50 carats and more.
Lucia visits Jaipur for special gems. In 2022, we made a movie about our jewellery that features Lucia in Jaipur with a massive emerald which an Indian gem collector/jeweller owned for almost 10 years. The massive emerald was cut to create a stunning 93.83-carat cabochon emerald, which was mounted in the mouth of the snake in a Bvlgari necklace.
Currently foreign jewellery brands have a very limited market share in one the world’s largest jewellery market. How do you plan to expand your reach among Indian buyers?
India is a large jewellery market. We plan to offer more assortments of our jewellery that appeals to Indian buyers in India. Our only issue is where do we sell it? Compared to other Asian markets like China or Japan, we have far fewer retail space options in India. We need more malls that are consistent with true luxury experience so as to be able to sell the special jewellery that we create for India. It’s surprising that, despite strong demand for luxury, India still lacks enough high-end malls.
As for the market share of foreign brands, it is currently less than 5%. The share of local players is so huge in India that even if we take away 10% of the market share, they will not even notice it.
Now if we talk about the U.S., global players like us have only 30% of the market share. The U.S. also has many regional players. Anywhere in the world you go, there is always a mix of regional and global players, in which global players at best have 30% of the local market and in the worst case scenario, like in India, less than 5%. My crusade in India is to increase this market share while benefiting mall owners because we do make sales here.