- Kendra Scott CEO Tom Nolan shared in an interview with Fortune his company’s expansion plans for 2025, made possible by owning the affordable luxury jewelry space. Nolan also pointed to his success working with the namesake founder of the company.
While consumers undoubtedly witnessed the pinnacle of store closures during the pandemic, 2024 and early 2025 have seen additional shutterings. Pharmacies, department stores, and niche retailers closed down locations as leadership changes, inflation, and consumer confidence plagued their bottom lines.
Some retailers, though, have not only bucked that trend, but even announced plans for expansion. One is Kendra Scott, an affordable luxury jewelry brand founded in 2002 in Austin, Texas. Between 2023 and 2024, the company grew 30%, and saw 20% year-over-year growth in 2024, Kendra Scott CEO Tom Nolan told Fortune. The company declined to reveal exact revenue figures.
Nolan credits the company’s success with maintaining relevance with a multigenerational customer base, including Gen Zers, millennials, and baby boomers. Plus, the brand has also remained in the affordable luxury category to appeal to people of varying socioeconomic backgrounds while other jewelry, accessory, and clothing brands have leaned into loud luxury.
“There’s been a lot of noise about luxury brands, but 82% of the US population makes less than $100,000 a year,” Nolan said. “So we’ve leaned into that constituency, really from the start.”
Kendra Scott jewelry prices can range from less than $50 to nearly $10,000 for pieces with precious stones like lab-grown diamonds. A comparable jewelry brand, Pandora, offers pieces in those same ranges, plus some higher-end jewelry including more lab-grown diamonds. Meanwhile, luxury jewelry brands like Cartier and Tiffany & Co. typically charge thousands of dollars for their distinguished pieces.
Kendra Scott’s dedication to affordable luxury goes all the way back to its founding by its namesake creator. Kendra Scott started the business as a single mom with just $500 out of a spare bedroom at a river house, Nolan said, “so she fit into that demographic.”
“She really wanted and appreciated and loved nice things,” Nolan said. “But she couldn’t afford them. So there was white space 23 years ago when she started the business there. And I think it still remains today.”
Nolan has a unique relationship with Kendra Scott, the founder. He previously said at a Fortune conference he sees a founder-CEO relationship the same as a sibling relationship.
“I think most founders look at a business as their kid. So giving custody of your kid really requires trust,” Nolan said at Fortune’s COO Summit in Middleburg, Va., in October 2024. “Kendra and I galvanized that over some really challenging things, through the years of COVID and others, and I think it was rooted in trust.”
Kendra Scott’s expansion plans
Currently, Kendra Scott operates about 150 stores, but has plans to open more in 2025.
“A lot of brands kind of start on the coast and work their way into the middle,” Nolan said. “We started in the middle, and are working our way out to the coasts.”
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The brand plans to open 25 stores this year, several of which will open in Texas. The company is also targeting West Coast locations and sees “high velocity traffic growth” in the northeast and midwest, Nolan said.
This year, Kendra Scott also plans to expand Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott, its new accessory brand with Western flare, which sells jewelry as well as hats and boots. There are currently three Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott brick-and-mortar locations.
One of the main reasons Kendra Scott has a planned expansion is to continue to grow brand awareness.
“Planning growth is challenging sometimes,” Nolan said. “But we’re really leaning into over-delivering for our customers, and we still have right around a 10% national brand awareness.”