CaratBerkshire's jeweler splits the job: revenue here, factories there
Richline promotes Rio Grande president Arien Gessner to chief revenue officer across four divisions and hands 30-year veteran Moss Makhoulian supply chain — procurement, Dominican and Chinese plants, logistics and diamond supply.
§1One owner per side.
Berkshire Hathaway's jewelry arm has redrawn its org chart along the industry's new fault line: money coming in, and metal going out. Richline Group last week promoted Arien Gessner to chief revenue officer and Moss Makhoulian to senior vice president of supply chain and operations — one owner for each side of the squeeze.
§2The résumés.
Gessner, 13 years with the company and most recently president of its Rio Grande tools-and-supplies division, takes revenue responsibility across Rio Grande, LeachGarner Attleboro, Nordt and Silpada — a portfolio that spans mill products, findings, componentry and direct-to-consumer silver. Makhoulian, who spent the past six years as senior vice president of merchandising and R&D after three decades that included Honora and David Yurman, now runs jewelry procurement, manufacturing capacity planning at the group's Dominican Republic and China facilities, logistics and diamond supply.
a jewelry manufacturer's margin is decided less at the sales desk than in metal purchasing, factory loading and freight
§3Why now.
Chief executive Dave Meleski framed the moves as support for the group's longer-term strategy, and the timing explains the shape of it. With gold above $4,000 an ounce and silver near $57, a jewelry manufacturer's margin is decided less at the sales desk than in metal purchasing, factory loading and freight — the exact portfolio Richline just consolidated under a single supply-chain owner.
When metal is this expensive, the supply chair matters more than the sales chair.
Richline giving each its own executive is what taking the input-cost era seriously looks like from inside a Berkshire company — quiet, structural, and announced without a single adjective.
The trade, filed to your inbox before the New York open.
Prices, tenders and the one story that moved the industry overnight — read in ninety seconds.
Subscribe free →$768.6 billion and a shrug: June retail grows 0.2 percent
The demand side of the same squeeze, in June's retail print