Garage Band: Jewelry shows benefit hospitals, not-for-profits

NORTH LIBERTY - A direct-to-market retailer has developed a successful business model that couples jewelry sales with fundraising for not-for-profit organizations.

Lionne Designs hosts two- and three-day sales in hospitals, corporations and not-for-profit locations.

Mary Beth Guillaume, Lionne Designs founder and president, draws on more than 25 years of experience in the jewelry industry.

'I managed what was then Josephson's Jewelers in downtown Iowa City,” Guillaume said. 'That's where I was introduced to the business and trained in the jewelry industry. The store was a subsidiary of Hands Jewelers and I feel like I learned from one of the best.”

Guillaume left the industry for a time before returning to purchase the assets of a store and renaming it Treasurers, Fine Jewelry. In 2002, Guillaume formed what eventually evolved into Lionne Designs, but continued to operate the jewelry store until closing the business about three years ago.

'I had become so fully immersed in what we were doing with Lionne Designs that I was never physically in my store,” Guillaume said.

'We've gone through many transitions over the years. What we thought we were when we started is not what we've ended up becoming today.'

Guillaume learned of the potential market for jewelry shows in hospitals while visiting a friend in University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

'I had noticed a large event in the hospital and was told that it was operated by an outside organization,” Guillaume said. 'Years later, I was having lunch with a friend in Cedar Rapids who was the president of the Mercy Foundation at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines. I asked her who to contact about hosting a jewelry show, and she said the person who orchestrated them reported to her.”

The foundation brought Lionne Designs in for a show almost immediately, she recalled.

Lionne Designs sets up about 50 feet of jewelry display. The hospital provides tables and Lionne Designs handles the remaining details, providing about 1,000 items as well as sales personnel.

Ninety percent of the jewelry is designed by artisans selected by the company. The jewelry is sold with a lifetime guarantee.

'We give a percentage of the sales to the hospital or foundation for its use,” she said. 'Over the years, we have given back hundreds of thousands of dollars.

' ...

We are very selective in terms of what we offer. I have an in-house designer and I also work with a small group of designers who handcraft the pieces.”

Lucas County Health Center in Chariton will host a Lionne Designs jewelry sale June 16. Linda Baynes, director of Lucas County Health Center Volunteer Services, said the company has impressed her with the quality of its jewelry and overall presentation.

'This will be our third sale,” Baynes said. 'I think it has been very well received in the community.

'The jewelry is very nice and they display it beautifully. Each time we do a little better because people have become aware of the quality.”

Baynes said Lionne Designs was selected because it offers a product not readily available in Chariton.

'We are a hospital in a small rural southern town of less than 5,000,” she said. 'When we do fundraising for volunteer services, we try not to be in competition with any of our retailers in town. We do not have a jewelry store.”

Hospital patients, staff and visitors purchase jewelry at the events. Sales are confined to the show area

'We do almost every major hospital in the state of Iowa, and we're also doing six additional states,” Guillaume said. 'We also just recently launched on Amazon.com and we're moving toward shows at large conferences.

'We had a very successful sale last month at the Iowa Women Lead Change Conference in Cedar Rapids. We have a number of channels of distribution.”

Guillaume said independent contractors will develop and supervise the shows in other states. She said Lionne Designs, which has less than a dozen employees, also is seeking to hire additional staff as it expands its operations to more locations.