THE ARCHITECT BEHIND THE REBIRTH OF
. CLASSIC MEETS TODAY .
Majorica‘s centuries-old history is full of art, beauty and magic, but also resilience and fortitude.
In its more than 130 years of history, Majorica’s trajectory could well represent the ancestral wisdom encoded in fairy tales, the metaphorical symbol and the earthly – and business – manifestation of «The Hero’s Journey» written by the American mythographer, professor and writer Joseph Campbell in one of the most important legacies of the twentieth century.
A story of overcoming, transformation and regeneration worthy of a fairy tale with a happy ending, which reminds us that solid values, a job well done and the courageous direction of the right leader, can reverse the most critical situations making possible to redirect this emblematic company to a new rebirth, embarking on a new stage of expansion and growth with a radiant future that shines again.
Today, at The Ambassadors Sections, we interview Didier Grupposo, the main architect behind the Renaissance of the legendary pearls of Mallorca, shining brightly on the international scene again, reaffirming the prestigious position of this emblematic brand.
Didier Grupposo has exceptional talent, creativity, instinct and sensitivity.
There are leaders who leave their mark, and then there are those who achieve the unthinkable and reach the impossible, as Didier did when he resurrected Majorica and made it shine from the crystalline sky of Mallorca to the world, where the beauty of pearls coexists once again with that of the stars themselves.
Armed with his passion for Majorica and his extraordinary resilience, Didier made it possible for the iconic pearl brand with more than 130 years of history to be reborn stronger than ever.
In the darkest moments, when the historic ship of Majorcan pearls was on the verge of sinking in a «perfect storm», Didier not only did not abandon the helm, but knew how to hold it firmly and determinedly, returning Majorica to a safe harbor, rescuing more than a century of history and beauty and driving its rebirth, making the light of Majorica shine brighter than ever.
Today, Didier Grupposo announced his departure from Majorica
With Didier’s departure, Majorica loses much more than an exceptional CEO.
It loses the one who has been the true architect of its resurgence.
But talent does not stop, and today Didier allows himself be seduced by the songs of new sirens that appear before him in an immense ocean of new and magical possibilities.
For those companies that long to have a leader with a unique ability to transform challenges into great opportunities, Didier undoubtedly stands as the best possible captain, capable of guiding them towards the most ambitious journeys.
Didier, I’m very happy to have the opportunity to interview you today. I have been a fan and client of Majorica all my life and have worn its necklaces, earrings and bracelets in interviews with world leaders since I was in my late 20’s.
What a precious opportunity to review the history of Majorica: its past, its present, and now also its radiant future, exciting and promising in the rebirth that the brand has experienced under your direction.
Thank you, Patricia. I am also proud to have contributed to making Majorica shine all over the world again, taking the name and prestige of Mallorca and Manacor to the top with each of our pearls.
It has been an unforgettable chapter of my life, and I wish Majorica to keep shining for many more centuries ahead.
Didier, before delving into the renewed present of Majorica and starting to explore its exciting future, let’s talk about its origins, the impressive trajectory of a company with more than 130 years of history, in order to put our readers in context about the immense value that Majorica represents both in the history and in the economy and culture of Mallorca, and especially Manacor.
Well, it all began at the end of the nineteenth century, when a German engineer named Eduard Hugo Heusch realized that nothing favored women more than pearls, but that, due to the high cost of natural pearls, only a very privileged group could have access to them.
As an engineer, Heusch decided to develop a manufacturing process that would be able to duplicate with absolute precision the appearance of natural pearls, but with manufactured pearls, creating an emblem of affordable luxury, making pearls accessible to a much wider audience.
In 1900, when Heusch was living in Paris, he decided to move to Spain, where he opened a first company in Barcelona and shortly afterwards also in Mallorca to start producing his pearls.
In 1901 the first Majorica factory was opened in Palma, on Calle Missió, where fifty employees worked and the following year it established its second factory in Manacor, which at that time was a small agricultural town in the east of Mallorca that, over time, would become the world capital of organic pearls.
Heusch chose Manacor for strategic reasons: in Manacor there was a high-quality workforce, experience and tradition in the glass-blowing industry and Majorica’s activity demanded a high level of skill from the artisans, the opaline blowers and the delicate dexterity and precision of the hands of the women who were in charge of lining the necklaces.
In addition, as early as 1879 there was a train that made the Manacor-Palma route, so these factors, together with a natural environment very close to the sea, offered the entrepreneur all the necessary elements in an optimal scenario for the creation of cultured pearls.
He decided that his factory in Manacor would be dedicated to the production of the most perfect artificial pearls that man could create with his own hands. His purpose was fulfilled and his vision spawned a company with a great future.
And so Majorica was born in 1890, the most perfect organic pearls in the world, created by hand by man, which perfectly reproduced the beauty and purity and the delicate iridescent shine that characterizes the natural pearl, with a sublime quality and excellent value for money.
The first documents of the company date back to 1890 and from the beginning of its activity, the company experienced spectacular expansion and growth.
The idea itself, the concept itself was already real genius…
That’s right. Majorica democratized the pearl and brought it closer to a more reasonable price accessible to all social classes.
Throughout its history, Majorica pearls have not only embellished women from all over the world, but have also been used in the creation of precious pieces created by renowned jewelers from all over the world.
And from its origins the firm had a marked vocation for international expansion…
Yes, the expansion was very rapid from the beginning, especially in the European markets and soon after also in the United States.
Logically, both the Second World War and the outbreak of the Spain’s civil war in 1936 meant the paralysis of production in both Barcelona and Mallorca. The factory in Barcelona was definitively closed and all production was centralised in Manacor, which resumed its activity in 1937.
At the end of the war, the growth in Spain’s economy also led to a boom in tourism, so Majorica once again experienced another very important expansion phase that marked another exponential milestone in its growth and international projection. The export and prestige of the brand grew like wildfire.
In fact, already in the 80s, when the first studies of notoriety of Spanish brands were carried out, Majorica stood out as one of the most recognized and valued Spanish brands worldwide.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, Majorica had already spread from Manacor-Mallorca to the world and in 1917 it opened its first branch in the United States, specifically on Fifth Avenue in New York.
In the most critical stages of the American adventure, over 15,000 necklaces were sold daily.
The crash of 1929 significantly slowed down sales in the United States, but in Europe they did not stop growing and activity recovered again years later also on the American continent.
Majorica has in its name a true tribute to Mallorca
Yes, Heusch was a man of very wealthy origin and family, with an exquisite education and training and a great sensitivity.
Eduard Hugo Heusch, the Founder of Majorica
He chose Majorica as the name of the brand, alluding to the place name with which the Romans referred to Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands.
At that time, Mallorcan society was somewhat closed, but Heusch gradually gained the trust of the people by investing in different activities in favour of the community, making donations to charitable causes, celebrating festivals for workers or making important contributions such as the creation of the large stained glass window for the main church of Manacor.
In 1925, the Manacor factory already had 240 machines at full capacity and more than 1,000 employees, including 50 positions for hand blowers.
Majorica pearls have given the Balearic Islands an exceptional international promotion, with more than 5,000 Majorica points of sale being counted around the world.
By the mid-1960s, more than 200,000 units were produced daily and were destined to be sold worldwide. Important beauty pageants have been sponsored over the years and Majorica’s memorable advertising campaigns over the decades have also contributed crucially to crystallizing Majorica’s image and prestige internationally throughout its 130-year history.
Didier, visiting the production centre to witness the manufacturing process is an extraordinary experience that has been enjoyed by countless famous people over the years, and also one of the most important tourist attractions in Manacor.
You never really wear Majorica’s precious pieces in the same way again, once you appreciate the manufacturing process of each piece at all its value…
Yes. Members of the Royal Family, including Queen Emeritus Sofia, such as her son, current King of Spain Felipe de Borbón, have passed through the facilities of the factory in Manacor, as well as actresses such as Gina Lollobrigida or Sofía Loren or the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, who visited the factory in 1967.
In 1968, the first Fancy was released, the mythical ten-position necklace patented by Majorica that became the brand’s great best-seller.
Famous celebrities and ladies of high society dreamed of wearing a pearl necklace from Majorica.
Sofía, the Emerit Queen of Spain (Mother of current King of Spain Felipe de Borbón) has visited the Majorica’s factory several times in her life
Felipe de Borbón, current King of Spain, visiting the Majorica factory in Manacor (Mallorca) when he was a kid, along with his sister Cristina.
Each of Majorica’s pearls is made up of a glass core bathed in several layers of a proprietary coating made in part from fish scales.
The cores of the solid pearl are extracted one by one from an opal crystal rod with an artisanal technique based on rotational movement.
The coated pearls are then allowed to dry before being polished and dipped in a product that hardens their surface and gives the pearls an extra layer of protection against any cosmetic damage such as chipping, cracking, or peeling. It also protects them from potential erosion that can occur when coming into contact with moisturizers and perfumes.
After the core manufacturing phase, the most important and delicate part of the process begins with the layers of Majorica Essence, whose almost magical formula endows the pearls with that wonderful iridescent shine identical to that of the natural pearls themselves and which is maintained, even today, under strict secrecy and away from public knowledge.
Throughout Majorica’s history, none of its employees has ever known the formulation of the treasured formula of the Majorica Essence, undoubtedly the best kept secret.
It’s a really fascinating manufacturing process. When the tourist corridor was created to share the production processes with visitors in 1961, more than 300,000 visits were counted.
A few years later, the company suffered a jolt in sales caused by the Hippie trend in the fashion industry, but it was compensated by the influx of tourism so that the Majorica production center continued to receive more than 600,000 visits per year.
After the founder’s death in 1937, his son Eduard Camille Heusch was established as the new managing director. It was he who dedicated special effort to finding the exact formula to create the perfect pearl. He invested the profits of the last decade in improving production systems and in important research on pearl essence.
The famous «Majorica Secret Formula», the firm’s best kept secret…
That’s right. In 1952, the young Hungarian chemist Geza Zsolt Mulacs, after years of research, managed to find the long-awaited perfect magisterial formula.
It would be the mixture of the work with natural elements of the sea and the use of guanine (an extract from the scales of fish such as anchovies or sardines) that would give birth to a pearl identical to the natural one in its appearance, the main hallmark of Majorica.
The new product began to be marketed from 1953, and to guarantee its authenticity to customers, the European Organization of the Majorica Pearl was created in 1954, which brought together the different distributors and two years later would become the World Organization of the Majorica Pearl.
The new Majorica pearl was very well received by customers and in a short time became a bestseller.
Even today, Majorica is the only company that certifies the extraordinary quality of its pearls with a 10-year guarantee.
Didier, I think it is very important to highlight that Women have always been a fundamental figure in the essence and history of Majorica, not only in terms of brand image, but above all in the process of the artisan production of pearls…
No doubt. And also in business terms: Majorica was the first company in Spain to hire women by eliminating wage gaps.
Generation after generation, grandmothers, mothers and daughters have worked at Majorica throughout its history: a nursery was even established inside the factory in 1961.
Since 1990, when Majorica celebrated the anniversary of its first centenary, it continues and will continue to be an emblem of beauty, elegance and glamour…
Already during the eighties, Majorica had positioned itself as one of the most modern companies in Europe. When it celebrated its first centenary, Majorica already had a presence in 118 countries around the world.
At the end of 1998, the lack of generational change led the ownership to sell the company to an investment group that applied changes that were not positive for the company, which together with the crisis derived from the September 11 attacks and the consequent decline in sales in international markets, brought the company to a truly critical situation.
Despite the years of crisis, Majorica continued to grow and celebrated its 125th Anniversary.
However, the Covid-19 crisis represented an almost mortal blow to the foundations of the company, which went into bankruptcy in 2021.
It was an extremely delicate moment on all fronts.
We had to consider the imminent closure of all the shops on the island, in the context of indescribable sadness and disappointment at the situation that many families might have to face if that happened.
It was at this crucial moment when the French company MajolaPerla, owned by the investor Gregory Bontoux, acquired Majorica, thus saving the company from extinction and with the firm objective of relaunching the brand at the top, through a comprehensive modernization of the firm.
THE REBIRTH…
It was the most exciting and decisive moment in the history of Majorica, the happy ending and the finishing touch to the evolution of an emblematic company with more than 130 years of history that had come to have more than 700 employees.
The resurgence of the brand in 2022 was presented to the public with a powerful rebranding based on a new, much broader transgenerational concept, with the aim of making Majorica a much more modern, evolved firm, updated to current times and trends, and oriented towards an inclusive future accessible to all genders and all audiences.
Under the slogan Classic Meets Today, a new era began for the company: with an image of the pearl fully integrated into the most current trends and the top of mind of the top trend jewellery with new designs, new pieces and new collections that are much more avant-garde, vibrant, full of beauty, energy and strength.
What a story Didier….
Well, like to many other companies internationally, as a result of Covid, things happened to us that were truly impossible to imagine, but as the Chinese say in their famous proverb: «All crises bring opportunities», and we are happy to this rebirth wrapped in a beautiful concept to modernize Majorica as an icon.
More than a jewel, Majorica represents an emblem that makes the pearl a form of universal adornment whose symbolism and meaning goes far beyond aesthetics.
During the last decade before the pandemic, before I became General Manager, Majorica changed several owners, passed from hand to hand by different owners and accumulated practically 10 years without great successes, without major events and without great advances.
Let’s say that, from a business point of view, the company was in sleeping beauty mode, the years were passing… and then he pandemic arrived, and that made it all together «the perfect storm».
Until Prince Charming appeared, for more legal reasons, who said «I love this brand, its philosophy, its product and its history. It has a future and it has projection, we are going to refresh it, we are going to update and modernize it, and we are going to take it back to the top.»
And here started my journey as General Manager, turning the company around since 2022, carrying out a comprehensive repositioning at the production, marketing and strategic level.
Didier and, in line with our metaphorical language, we could say that between the sleeping beauty and the prince, you were the fairy godmother, the fundamental figure that actually made Majorica’s new reality possible. A display of courageous and audacious leadership indeed.
Well, let’s just say that these edge cases often require vision and I never had any doubt that Majorica would wake up again.
«The Beauty» existed and had all the ingredients to shine again, it had history, it had trajectory, it had prestige, it had quality and it had a product and a brand that is very easy to identify.
We didn’t want to change our essence, but to give it a more up-to-date air, we trusted McCann and they got the campaign so right.
Internationally, almost everyone knows our brand. You travel the world and they tell you «Oh yes, Majorica, the pearls», and that is a fantastic capital. And this happens in Spain, as it happens in Mexico, in Miami or in Dubai…
Majorica has a history, a living history marked by links, experiences, anecdotes and memories.
And above all, Majorica has a team involved in this project.
I suppose that all this is what makes so many investors want to always appropriate this brand, because Majorica has its own DNA with a lot of power and magnetism.
In this new stage, there had to be that magical confluence that the current investor coincided with the principles and values of the first founder, and that fortunately happened.
It wasn’t a matter of numbers, it was a matter of magic. It was an emotional issue, but with all the financial numbers well squared, yes. Majorica is a brand, but also a company…
You talk to people from our workshops here, with our artisans, who we know here as «les perleres» and they tell you «I’m sitting where my mother sat».
They are stories of tradition, of entire families with a very strong sense of belonging. Very, very strong.
Nowadays, companies invest millions in creating branding and you have built it organically over 130 years of experience…
Yes, now we are in the phase of redirecting it, of making this sleeping beauty wake up in a new reality full of novelties.
We continue to bet on international expansion: last year we started by opening a new store in Miami, for example.
On a national level, this year we have opened a spectacular new Majorica Flagship Store in Manacor, we have given a magnificent Refresh, a change of look to all the stores and that is immediately noticeable: we have closed sales with more than 35% over the previous year, matching the levels of 2019 and with a positive bottom line.
Didier Grupposo, Majorica’s General Manager, and Margalida Prohens, Balearic Islands’ President, at the opening of the Majorica Flagship Store in Manacor.
We are also going to strengthen our presence in the Corte Inglés stores throughout Spain, where we have a very good presence, we are going to rely on all the sales channels we have, which is also important because in Majorica we manage many of our own stores in department stores internationally, such as El Corte Inglés in Spain, the Palacio de Hierro in Mexico or Saks in the United States.
On the other hand, we will intensify our work with our retailers and partners, because we work with many different partners and since at Majorica we look at the world by countries, at an international level we will focus on Duty Free plus the entire structure of the Retail Trade, retail sales that includes all activities related to sales to the end consumer, which is especially booming not only at airports, but also in cruise ships and in sales on board planes.
By geographical areas, beyond the United States, especially in Miami, we will also focus on the entire American continent, because Majorica is also present in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina, countries in which the brand is also very well positioned.
In Europe we will continue to grow as one of our most mature markets, with special emphasis on Spain and Germany, and now we are also looking very fondly at Asia, because Majorica meets the ideal criteria to succeed there.
In Europe, what is most considered about a brand is its history and quality, but in Asia, the pearl also has a more spiritual element.
Asia is a pending issue on which we will be working, especially China and Korea, where we already have a selection of potential partners, and we are right now fine-tuning possible agreements.
Majorica’s novelties are also reflected in the new collections, much more versatile and modern, adapted to the new times, without forgetting the classic timeless icons of the firm, of course
That’s right. Now more than ever there is a Majorica piece for every occasion, and to make any special moment a memorable memory.
From its mythical pearl necklaces, earrings, pendants, rings and bracelets, Majorica offers handmade pieces for all occasions, elegant and inspired by its centuries-old past but that maintain its connection with modern design.
We have a pearl jewel for all occasions and different budgets. Whether you’re celebrating an engagement, or an anniversary, an important life event like a wedding or communion, or just want to show someone how much you care, Majorica is the perfect gift to express beauty and love through pearls.
We create and stock a wide range of contemporary jewelry pieces designed to highlight the unique perfection of the pearl with the artisanal touch of tradition.
We have launched our new men’s collection, because pearls also look great on men, touches of modernity that coexist perfectly with our most classic designs.
Wonderful, Didier. Certainly, a fascinating story and a bright, promising future not only for Majorica but also for you. What new projects or sectors will now capture your attention?
I am deeply grateful to Majorica and to life for placing this incredible opportunity in my path. On a professional level, it has been an extraordinary journey, and on a personal level, it has enriched me profoundly, as I had the privilege of working alongside a remarkable team, people of exceptional talent, unwavering commitment, and boundless creativity, always brimming with fresh and inspiring ideas.
I don’t want to limit myself to any specific segment or sector. I embrace opportunities with passion and dedication and I am driven by a genuine enthusiasm for every project I undertake, so I rather remain open to wherever life may lead me next.
To investors or entrepreneurs who could be looking for a leader willing to embark on great challenges, capable of achieving ambitious goals, count on me if you believe that my experience and professionalism can add value to your projects, because I am always motivated by challenges.
What is life, after all, but a continuous most exhilarating challenge?
I invite readers who today have learned more about Majorica and about myself, to fall in love with life as much as I am, and to count on me for all those projects that require highlighting the expression of beauty, life and the infinite possibilities that open up before us when we are brave enough to venture into unknown territories and face new exciting projects and adventures with determination and enthusiasm.
I will be delighted to lead or develop any brand or project that requires leading with enthusiasm and passion.
In my opinion, the best results are always achieved from the heart.
Where to find Majorica Worldwide:
https://www.majorica.com/es/donde-estamos
Didier Grupposo – General Manager Majorica
https://www.linkedin.com/in/didier-grupposo-b295b4/
Majorica Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/company/majorica/posts/
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https://www.instagram.com/majoricaofficial/
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https://www.facebook.com/Majorica/
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