Ratner returns to GeraldOnline
Jewellery website backed by Indian diamond supplier
July 14 2003
Retailer Gerald Ratner is reviving plans for his jewellery website GeraldOnline after winning backing from Indian diamond supplier SB&T International.
GeraldOnline, which will target customers aged 18 to 30-year-olds at the top end of the UK high street market, will start trading this autumn.
SB&T will have a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture, and will supply around 25 per cent of the products sold. Most lines will be supplied by Goldsmiths, the retail jeweller which is the main UK rival to Signet, Ratner’s former company.
Last year, Signet won a court battle to prevent the venture being called RatnerOnline, successfully arguing that its still owned the rights to the Ratner name despite dropping it from its stores. Ratner left the business after famously describing one of its products as ‘crap’.
The website business was renamed GeraldOnline and was originally scheduled to launch last autumn. Ratner then had problems raising the funds needed to gain a listing on Ofex. Now backed by SB&T, GeraldOnline plans to be trading September, in time to maximise Christmas sales.
Ratner said: “It has been a frustrating year for GeraldOnline. We were all set to launch last year before we ran into some much-publicised difficulties. We are raring to go in September.”
Should any products fail to meet customers’ expectation of quality, Ratner stressed they could be returned to branches of Goldsmiths.
