Rosa Tous: "There are people who, more than hating the Tous bear, hate the people who like it."

ManresaThroughout the office it is represented in a multitude of sizes, materials and colors. The vice president of Tous, Rosa Tous, puts for theCompanies Along with a giant esparto grass version of the bear that has become the quintessential icon of the Catalan jewelry brand. Founded by his grandfather over 100 years ago, the Manresa-based company has surpassed €500 million in turnover for the first time and aims to continue strengthening its brand worldwide.

Tous's story is that of his family. How did they tell you about it?

— Many years ago I took my grandmother and said to her, "Explain to me how it all began." Because I knew that my grandfather was a watchmaker, that he had started as an apprentice, but what I didn't know was when.

Do you have memories of that workshop?

— We'd get out of school and be made to go to the store. We'd finish English and have to go to the store. By then, my grandparents had retired a bit, and my parents were running the business, so the store was the nerve center for the whole family at that point.

What were those early years like for your parents?

— They worked from Monday to Saturday night. They had Sundays off, which is when we took advantage of the opportunity to do activities. We went to the mountains a lot. I've always joked that at home we ate earrings for breakfast, bracelets for lunch, and necklaces for dinner, because jewelry was almost always discussed. We took it very naturally, the fact that my parents worked so much. We'd always been with a dad who looked after us when they weren't there. We're four sisters who are only a few years apart in age and grew up together. We have memories of a happy childhood. They weren't absent.

As a child, you wanted to be a dancer.

— I did classical dance and loved it. But after a few years, my grandfather told me, "You have to be a gemologist." I was one of those who collected pebbles along the way. It was a good thing. I had already worked at the store, because they kept you busy during the summers and at Christmas. Later, I studied gemology and was very lucky because I was able to go to Los Angeles to do so.

How was that first contact?

— It was wonderful, because I was also surrounded by people from all over the world. It was exciting; we talked about stones and gems all the time.

What was the first project you were commissioned to do upon your return?

— I remember being with a client who wanted to buy a diamond, and I would tell him all the details: the color, the inclusions [the internal imperfections that form during the natural crystallization process]... I've since learned that things need to be explained, but perhaps in a more subtle way. I was so transparent... I think I scared him, and it took him a while to buy that diamond.

Your sector also has a lot to do with emotions.

— When you go to a jewelry store looking for a gift, it's because there's a celebration. We're present at the most important moments in our customers' lives. You understand that you need to be much more empathetic. They're not looking for a diamond of that type or that color; they want a gift to say thank you, to celebrate something.

He has always said that his mother democratized jewelry.

— Yes, my mother had that vision in the 1970s. She was also very ahead of her time, because she married my father when she was 18, in 1965, and went to work. This wasn't very common at that time either. She realized that customers were starting to ask for jewelry more for everyday wear, not so much for special occasions. You have to keep in mind that at that time, women only had jewelry because men gave it to them. In the 1970s, luckily, things began to change even though women were already starting to work. Fortunately, my mother saw that these things were happening. And it was she who set up the jewelry workshop in the store and began designing.

The workshop grew.

— Our first growth was in Spain. We grew with participating companies, a kind of franchise tailored to our size. This allowed us to grow very quickly and also to work on logistics. Moving goods so quickly made it easier for us. After a while, we started to think that Spain would be too small for us, around the 1990s.

Did you have to adapt your product to internationalize it?

— It was more about telling them than adapting it. Our design is quite fresh, naive, and natural, often inspired by natural forms. This is a very international and universal language. But it's clear that we had to work very closely with the teams, both on the technical side and also on the brand side, so they could explain who we were outside of Spain.

Has that identity changed over the years?

— In 2020, we celebrated our centenary and asked ourselves what Tous should look like in the next centenary. We undertook this very structured brand evolution exercise and finally launched it in 2021. We are now a creative brand with a sense of humor and boldness.

Have you ever considered giving up the bear or is it non-negotiable?

— No, the bear has always been there. In that exercise, it was a point we took very seriously. We decided that what we had to do was take great care of it and put it where it deserved to be: as a product, as a joy, as part of a bag, as a fragrance, and not everywhere. Perhaps we had previously reached a point where we had it as a graphic image alongside our logo, in campaigns, on the website, in stores, and we decided against it. As my mother always said, an icon isn't made by the brand, it's made by society. We made a shift.from the same bear and we have evolved it into what we now call bold (bold, in English). It's the same bear, and if you only see the shadow, you know it's ours, but we've actually given it volume. It's helped us explain to our long-time customer that the bone doesn't disappear; it's there and remains important to us. In fact, it wasn't born as the brand's logo. It was born as a product, as a collection. And it became strong because our client wanted to make it strong. I remember when customers would come to the store and say, "I don't want the bear, I've seen it too much," and they'd end up leaving with the bear.

But now he will distance himself.

— Well, because everything is a phase. And we must take care of the phase we're in now above all else. What we want is to protect it so it can stay with us for much longer. The centenary was the year of COVID, and after all we suffered, we made a documentary we titled "The Last Day of the Year." Bear, because we precisely wanted to talk about that duality that the bear has. lovers absolute and also has ranchers.

Understand the ranchers?

— Yes, yes. You often understand them because perhaps more than hating the bear, they hate the people who like the bear. Ultimately, it would be a more humanistic or sociological issue. But it's true that you can't please everyone. We're not a brand for everyone. We're very clear about who our customer is and who we're targeting. And if there are people who don't like it, there are many other brands. Of course, the market is broad and open.

Do you see any differences with jewelry brands that were born in the internet age?

— All those that were born digital clearly have a very interesting technological component, but we have also launched our own digitalization. Most of them ultimately want to go physical. And this is the hardest part. This is our advantage. But we're all always learning. In the end, there are large and small companies that reflect us. We must be vigilant about what's happening around us and never assume we already know how to do everything.

How do global tensions affect a brand as global as yours? In the case of the United States, it had a plan and has not decided to back down despite the tariffs.

— We had a plan to strengthen our presence in the United States. We've had a store in New York for many years, in Rockefeller Center, which is doing very well for us. We have stores in Miami and throughout Florida, on the border with Mexico, in Texas... And we'll continue with the goal of strengthening them. All of this is part of our daily routine. In the end, you have to be constantly vigilant. You have to have a very good waistline to adapt.

How did you experience the years of the Trial?

— Look, the good thing is that it's over. We're looking back on it now in the sense that it was a difficult time for everyone. And as we've always said, I think that as a company we should never take sides on political, religious, or sporting issues. Ultimately, within a company there's a multicultural environment, people from all over the world, with different religions, different ways of thinking... Some are Barça fans and others are Real Madrid fans. We must be tremendously apolitical and neutral in many aspects, not just politics.

What have been the advantages and complications of being a family business? 

— I don't know about the complications, because I haven't worked anywhere else. I know family businesses and I know my own, and I'm very focused now as president of the Catalan Association of Family Businesses (ASCEF). Rather than keeping an eye on the next quarter, we're keeping an eye on the next generation. We have that long-term vision. We create many jobs, a lot of wealth. In family businesses, we work with a lot of passion and emotion, which perhaps isn't as much in a non-family business, but I also see it as a positive thing.

How have you learned to separate family relationships from business with your sisters?

— We've worked extensively with consultants. We learned many years ago that we wear three hats: the family hat, the owner-family hat, and the executive hat. We must always be very clear about which hat we wear and manage it as best we can. We are four sisters, and the four of us have a family council. We work, we see each other a lot, we talk a lot, we argue, too, obviously, but we always find a consensus.

The importance of having family protocols is also discussed.

— Yes, there's a protocol in place that we want to review now because it's from 2008. And now we're at a different point in history, and we're going over it again.

In their case, the couples have not entered the company.

— Well, it was well thought out. Also well thought out was the incorporation of a non-family CEO within the company.

Returning to the next generation, there is already a member running for the company.

— Yes, there is one, which is in the transformation and digital area. But they are all young, and we have always given them a lot of freedom to decide. What we are working with them is to ensure that they are responsible shareholders. Now, within the company, we will see how things will evolve. We must start by defining what form this next generation will take.

In their case, it was very clear that the four sisters would continue with the company.

— My parents were very clear about creating a large company so that all four of us could be there. And in the case of our children, not everyone will be able to... We also have some limitations within the family protocol, but then we'll decide on each one. They've all had the opportunity to come here for internships, but just because they know the company doesn't mean they have to come here to work.

How to face this new stage after repurchasing the 25% stake in the company that was held by the Partners Group fund?

— It gives us more responsibility in the end. Plus, we've been working exceptionally well with our fund. It was a family decision, and once we made the decisions, we moved forward and didn't look back.

How do you know that Tous is a company with a strong female presence?

— Well, our main role model has been our mother, as a pioneer and a visionary. Half of the management team are women. Our president is a woman, my sister Alba. There's a way of doing things that we might not have if we were four brothers instead of four sisters.