Gemmyo accelerates Canada, South Korea expansion for 15th anniversary

Gemmyo is betting that a ring made in France can still travel, and that provenance can be a selling point strong enough to win gold-jewelry buyers in Canada and South Korea. As the house marked 15 years of independence, it accelerated expansion in both markets while continuing to invest in its longtime workshop in France, a move that puts its made-in-France identity at the center of its next growth phase.

That positioning has always been part of Gemmyo’s story. Pauline Laigneau and Charif Debs founded the company in 2011 after finding the Paris engagement-ring experience cold, intimidating and outdated, and the brand still describes itself as an independent house built on fair prices, personalized service and 100 percent French craftsmanship. Gemmyo says every piece is handcrafted in France, most jewels are made to order rather than held in stock, and production is anchored by recycled gold and platinum along with diamonds that comply with the Kimberley Process. For luxury buyers, those are the kinds of specifics that matter: they turn provenance from a marketing phrase into a buying criterion.

The company now says it has 10 boutiques, including locations in Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Aix-en-Provence, Toulouse, Brussels, Geneva, Zürich and Tokyo. That network matters because Gemmyo has also been leaning on a phygital model, using stores and online service together rather than treating digital and retail as separate worlds. Sophie Garric, the chief executive, has framed the brand as occupying the space between hyper-luxury and accessible luxury, where quality, customization and service have to justify the price tag. In a category where gold jewelry often competes on finish, feel and trust as much as on metal weight, that is a sharper pitch than generic luxury gloss.

Tokyo offered the clearest proof of concept. Gemmyo opened a permanent boutique there in late 2025, in Omotesando at 5-16-13 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, and treated it as a test of entering a market without a distributor. One report put Tokyo sales at 2 million euros in its first year, a useful sign that the brand’s mix of French manufacture and controlled distribution can scale outside its home market.

Canada and South Korea give that strategy a new edge. Canada and South Korea established diplomatic relations in 1963, their free trade agreement took effect in 2015, and bilateral merchandise trade reached $25 billion in 2025, with South Korea now Canada’s seventh-largest trading partner. Canada’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with South Korea, launched in 2022 and expanded with an Action Plan in 2024, underscores how tightly the two markets are linked. For Gemmyo, they are not just new flags on a map. They are a test of whether French craftsmanship, transparent materials and a less intimidating retail experience can still persuade buyers that the smartest luxury is the one that can prove where it came from.