Majorica
| Perlas Majórica SA and Majórica SA
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1902 |
| Seat | Barcelona |
| management | Carlos Puig (General Manager) |
| Number of employees | 294 ( 2008 ) |
| Branch | Jewelry industry |
| Website | www.majorica.com |
Majorica is a Spanish jewelry and fashion company based in the Catalan capital of Barcelona . The main production site is in Manacor, Mallorca . Majorica has other production facilities in Vic in the province of Barcelona and in the Canary Islands .
The Pearl Majórica SA as a production company and the related sales Majorica SA , both public companies (SA Sociedad Anónima), are currently majority owned by the Iberian Investment Holding Group . The number of employees fell from a high of over 1,000 in 1948 to just 175 today. The name "Majorica", which is protected by company law, became known through the production of a certain type of artificial pearls , also called Perlas Majórica ® ("Majorica pearls") after the company .
Today's colloquial term Mallorca pearls is derived from the name of the Majorica company , which mainly produced these artificial pearls in Mallorca. The so-called imitation pearls from Majorica are products made artificially from organic material that imitate natural pearls in color, shape and material.
history
The Majorica company was founded by the German entrepreneur Eduard Friedrich Hugo Heusch (1865–1937) in 1902 as Indústria Española de Perlas de Imitación SA . Previously in had Aachen -born factory owner's son from the Rhineland industrial family Hoesch / Heusch and his brother Karl Hugo Heusch (1867-1945) in Barcelona the company La Metalurgica Española SA (LME) built, which he later headed as sole president, while the brother ran the business of the family business Hugo Heusch & Co. in Aachen. Even before the end of the 19th century, Eduard Heusch wanted in the company he founded Société des perles des Indes E. Heusch & Co. in France Paris produce imitation pearls, production there was rejected. The methods he has been developing since then for the production of artificial pearls are now being implemented at the new production site in Manacor on Mallorca, after a series production on a small scale had already started in Barcelona.
For the production facility in Manacor, Eduard Heusch appointed Pedro Riche, a former journalist with contacts to the fashion world, who he knew from his time in Paris, as managing director. After the company was entered in the commercial register, the brand name “Majórica” was created in 1902, based on the Latin Maiorica , the former name of the island of Mallorca. The successor to Eduard Heusch in the presidency of the Heusch Group ( Heusch Industrias Reunidas SA ) as well as the Indústria Española de Perlas de Imitación SA took over after his death in 1937 his son Edouard Camille Heusch (1889–1961), Pedro Riche acquired his own shares on Companies. The company in Manacor, Mallorca, was then renamed Perlas Majórica . Since then, the protected company logo has featured a stylized pearl above the “i” in the name “Majorica”.
In 1948 the monopoly of the Heusch family for the production of this type of imitation pearls ran out, which led to the establishment of further companies in the production area. In the same year, Perlas Majórica employed more than 1000 people on the island of Mallorca, the number of which had decreased to around 800 by 1951. The company has now been split into Perlas de Manacor SA , the pearl manufacturer, and Majorica SA for sales. The 90 product lines were sold in over 350 sales outlets in 120 countries worldwide. In 1952 it came in Manacor establishing the company Orquídea , dealing with their future production site in Montuïri , also in Mallorca, the strongest competitor of Majorica developed. At the same time, a more cost-effective manufacturing process was introduced in the Perlas de Manacor factory , moving from manual production to industrial series production. The chemist and laboratory director from Hungary , Geza Zsolt , was responsible for this, and this further development gave the Majorica pearl its present form.
In 1996, Jaime Peribáñez took over the overall management of the company as General Manager of the headquarters in Barcelona. Rumors arose about the sale of Majorica's shares to foreign investors, connected with the closure of the Manacor site and the relocation of production abroad. So in 1997 the name Perlas de Manacor expired as a production company. Under the leadership of Alpha Investment Management Inc. of Cincinnati in the US Ohio one acquired in 1998 then actually consortium of several companies, the traditional company Majorica . Specifically, Iberian Investment Holding Group with 40.33%, Dutchcoinvest BV with 21.75% and Sociedad Ibérica de Cartera with 13.52%. A minority share of 24.40% remained in free float . In order to secure jobs on Mallorca, the government of the Balearic Islands also participated in the company. Vivian Mesquida became the new general director after the takeover.
In 2006, the old company premises in Manacor, on which apartments are to be built, were sold for 16 million euros. Majorica's chief financial officer , Pablo Rivas, announced in a press release from the beginning of 2007 that further jobs would be cut. Due to a slump in sales, the management under the current General Manager Carlos Puig decided to reduce the number of employees at Perlas Majórica in Manacor from 405 to 175. In return, the number of employees in distribution, sales and administration was to be increased from 69 to 119. Furthermore, it was decided to increase the capital and to invest 1.7 million euros in new manufacturing technology. Majorica had already restructured and reduced the number of employees in 2008 . The current sales range includes around 10,000 different pearl and jewelry concepts. Today, Majorica no longer just means the production and processing of artificial pearls, but also fashion accessories with a high design component, with imitation pearls and fine materials being used as basic elements.
Majorica pearls
The Majorica pearls is man-made imitation pearls that mimic the look of real pearls. The production was developed by the founder of the Majorica company , Eduard Heusch, and perfected during the company's history. In contrast to other imitation pearls, sand cores hardened under high pressure are used as core instead of the usual glass pearls. When placed on a special holder, these are given a coat of 30 layers of a mass of mother-of-pearl and mother-of-pearl-like materials, such as fish scales.
Each layer is heated so strongly by means of a gas burner that the individual molecules of the special mixture combine to form larger molecules through polymerization . By adding colored minerals any kind of shade and tint can be achieved. After the pearls have cooled down, they are honed and polished. The end product is very difficult to distinguish from real mother-of-pearl pearls. Their surface is somewhat smoother than that of natural pearls, which show growth characteristics. Due to the thirty-fold hardening process, the Majorica pearls are also more chemically stable and withstand high mechanical forces.
Currently, this type of imitation pearls are only produced by the companies Perlas Majórica in Manacor and Perlas Orquídea in Montuïri on Mallorca. Both companies have exhibition and presentation rooms in Manacor, directly at the entrance to the town from the direction of Palma . The companies try to protect themselves against inferior imitations based on glass spherical cores, some of which are manufactured in China and Thailand, by means of certificates of authenticity (certificates of origin). The imported goods, some of which are fully assembled in a few small businesses on Mallorca, are offered for sale in relevant retail outlets alongside the products of Perlas Majórica and Perlas Orquídea .
Web links
- Majorica website (German)
- The new House of Majorica in Porto Cristo , company history
- La Metalúrgica Española (engl.)
- Majorica - The Story of the Finest Imitation Pearls in the World
- Majorica pearl factory Manacor , on mallorcatipps.com
- Information on Majorica Pearls at antique-jewelry.investor.com