Société Nouvelle d’Achat de Bijouterie (SONAB)
Founded : Acquired 1994
Activities : Retailing fine jewelry and operating leased fine jewelry department stores in France
Stockists : 104 locations
Origin : 9 Rue du Maréchal Foch, Cannes, France
www.HauteBijouterie.com
Finlay Fine Jewelry Corporation is one of the leading retailers of fine jewelry and the largest operator of licensed fine jewelry departments in department stores, with over 1,095 locations throughout the United States, and operates through the Internet.
Finlay Fine Jewelry Corporation’s brands included Carlyle & Co., J.E. Caldwell, Park Promenade, Congress Jewelers and Bailey Banks & Biddle Fine Jewelers. Additional information on Finlay Fine Jewelry Corporation and its brands is available at www.FinlayEnterprise.com.
In addition to its domestic leased jewelry department business, Finlay operated France’s largest leased jewelry operations since its 1994 acquisition of Société Nouvelle d’Achat de Bijouterie (Sonab), which included 104 locations in such leading French stores as Galeries Lafayette and Nouvelles Galeries.
The Galeries Lafayette is a French department store company. In 1895, Théophile Bader and his cousin Alphonse Kahn opened a fashion store in a small haberdasher’s shop at the corner of rue La Fayette and the Chaussée d’Antin, Paris. In 1896, the company purchased the entire building at n°1 rue La Fayette and in 1905 the buildings at n°38, 40 et 42, boulevard Haussmann and n°15 rue de la Chaussée d’Antin. Bader commissioned Georges Chedanne and then his pupil Ferdinand Chanut to design the layout of the Haussmann location. A glass and steel dome, and Art Nouveau staircases were built in 1912.
Other famed merchants include Fred, D&G, Chaumet, Gucci, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpel, La Perla, and Cerruti 1881.