Signet Jewelers has announced a multi-year restructuring strategy under the name “Grow Brand Love,” which includes store closures, operational consolidation, brand realignment, and leadership changes. The plan follows a period of declining sales and profitability for the company, which operates brands including Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared, Blue Nile, and James Allen.
Store Network Under Review
Signet plans to evaluate approximately 150 underperforming stores for potential closure over the next two years. In addition, the company has identified close to 200 locations that, while currently performing well, are situated in what it considers declining retail environments. These stores may be relocated to off-mall sites. Around 200 locations are also scheduled for renovation.
Joan Hilson, Chief Financial, Strategy and Services Officer at Signet, stated: “Nearly 200 doors in our fleet have healthy performances but are in venues that we believe are in decline. Over the next two to three years, we plan to reposition many of these stores to off-mall locations.”
Altogether, approximately 550 stores—around one-quarter of Signet’s total retail footprint—are being considered for closure, relocation, or refurbishment.
Sourcing Operations Centralized
As part of the restructuring, Signet will consolidate its diamond sourcing under a single internal team. This team will oversee the procurement of both natural and lab-grown diamonds, as well as key product categories such as solitaires, studs, and pendants.
“We are fully centralizing our sourcing practices to leverage the scale of our buying power and deep market expertise,” said Hilson. “The newly chartered Signet diamond-sourcing team will negotiate pricing across our portfolio and improve our agility as a large buyer in the marketplace for both loose diamonds and finished diamond jewelry.”
She added, “This strategy will provide greater transparency of true demand in the market,” and that, when combined with Signet’s De Beers sightholder status and beneficiation factory in Botswana, it would help “bring the highest-quality, responsibly sourced diamonds at the most competitive pricing.”
Brand Realignment and Leadership Reduction
Signet is restructuring its brand portfolio into four customer-focused categories:
- Core milestone and romantic gifting jewelry: Kay Jewelers and Peoples
- Style and trend: Zales and Banter
- Inspired luxury: Jared and Diamonds Direct
- Digital pure play: Blue Nile, James Allen, and Rocksbox
“Organizationally, we will centralize the leadership and operation of Signet’s brands into four distinct customer families,” said CEO J.K. Symancyk.
As part of the broader organizational changes, the company will also reduce the size of its senior leadership team by approximately 30 percent.
“Our new model includes reducing the number of our senior leadership team members by roughly 30%,” said Symancyk. “We will simplify the structure underlying our brand portfolio and services.”
He also said, “We are streamlining the organization to speed up decision making and enable an action orientation for our new go-to-market strategies.”
Symancyk commented on the shift away from the “banner” concept, saying, “Brands build loyalty with customers through emotional and engaging connections, while banners are transactional, literally a static nameplate on the door.”
Product Strategy and Market Focus
Signet plans to expand its product offering with a focus on design-led jewellery to support gifting and self-purchase occasions. The company also aims to strengthen its position in the bridal category, which has seen slower recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our overall [fourth-quarter] performance and lack of growth over the past several quarters informed our new strategy to grow our business,” said Symancyk. “We will infuse more style and design-led product into our assortment to accelerate our growth in self-purchase and gifting while expanding our leadership position in bridal.”
Symancyk added that the company plans to grow its bridal market share—currently around 30 percent—through “assortment and price-point architecture,” making use of in-house design capabilities, updated product styles, and vendor partnerships.
In the fashion jewellery segment, he noted that Signet underperformed during the holiday period, in part due to insufficient inventory at lower price points.
“We will continue to make changes to our assortment this spring to drive improvement for the next two major gifting seasons, Mother’s Day and the winter holidays,” he said.
The company also intends to consolidate its repair services as part of operational streamlining.
Financial Results and Market Outlook
Signet reported fourth-quarter revenue of $2.35 billion, a 6 percent year-over-year decline. Same-store sales fell 1.1 percent. Net profit for the quarter dropped 84 percent to $100.6 million.
For the full fiscal year ending February 1, 2025, revenue declined 7 percent to $6.7 billion, with net profit down 92 percent to $61.2 million. Same-store sales for the year declined by 3 percent.
Despite the earnings decline, Signet’s share price rose 21 percent following the announcement of the restructuring plan. The company projects that first-quarter same-store sales will be flat to up by as much as 2 percent.
Industry Implications
Signet’s restructuring highlights several developments relevant to the broader jewellery industry:
- The move to centralise sourcing reflects a growing trend toward procurement efficiency and price leverage in diamond buying.
- Shifting away from mall-based retail is consistent with a broader industry transition toward off-mall formats.
- Brand segmentation strategies indicate a focus on tailoring consumer engagement by customer type rather than store name recognition.
- Adjustments to product mix and pricing architecture may prompt changes in vendor relationships and category planning, particularly in the bridal and fashion jewellery segments.
Jewelers across the industry may look to this case as an example of how large retail operators are responding to changing consumer behavior, shifting market conditions, and operational challenges.
