KEY POINTS:
In its 20th anniversary as a publicly listed company, Michael Hill International achieved a milestone as the top-performing company on the NZX, delivering investors a 52.6 per cent return for the year.
After the company passed $10 a share recently, it made a 10-for-one share split that increased the number of shares in circulation - possibly increasing trading.
But the need for a share split - because the value rose so much - was a happy anniversary outcome.
Now the company has set its sights on the next 20 years. It plans to become a true global retailer, increasing its 200 stores to 1000 by 2025 by moving upmarket.
Some might argue that the stake owned by the Hill family - with close to 50 per cent of shares - makes Michael Hill International more volatile than other stocks.
With so few shares available when the company is in the good times, the price gets pushed up, analysts say.
But despite the lack of liquidity in the shares and Michael Hill's exposure to the other "nasty" trends that can affect retailers - the firm is doing a lot of things right.
Michael Hill - the man not the company - said that in the early days the company worried about how to boost the share price. It is clearly no longer worried.
Business commentator Brian Gaynor admires the man who started with one jewellery store in 1979, built a chain of 200 and now has more ambitious plans.
"I don't know whether the company and its expansion plans will be successful or not. Retail conditions can always turn nasty. I just a like a guy who started with one shop in Whangarei and expanded solely by being an astute businessman," Gaynor said.
Michael Hill's high-profile backing for the New Zealand Golf Open goes hand in glove with the company's plans to expand.
His development of The Hills golf course near his Queenstown home and backing for the Open means Michael Hill jeweller is being sold as "Michael Hill golfer".
Hill says he's no great shakes at the game - he has a respectable 12 handicap - and he enjoys it. But he is more interested in gold than golf.
"Golf is a minor interest and the jewellery business is my key focus, I have a vision," he told the Business Herald.
"We are turning Michael Hill International from a discount jeweller into a reputable global brand."
The link with golf and with classical music through the international Michael Hill violin competition is a part of the rebranding.
Hence the driving - and so far successful - shift into the middle market.
The boosters would expect no less for this company which has its headquarters in Australia and is owned in large part from Queenstown.
Hill's family interests own 46.5 per cent of the company and his daughter Emma is viewed as heir apparent.
Chief executive Mike Parsell is the hands-on director for the company from its head office in Brisbane.
Michael Hill International has a reputation for limited market communication. Analysts say that apart from regulatory requirements of its NZX listing, they get limited advice on the company's thinking and performance.
Gaynor says the Michael Hill International team are "doers not talkers".
"He has a very simple formula of taking one step at a time and getting it right before he moves to the next stage."
Macquarie Equities retail analyst Warren Doak agrees Michael Hill International is doing many things right.
"[It is] a benchmark that other retailers work on with good, well-trained staff."
The company had gravitated from a low-end budget operation to a genuine middle-ground player and was now reinventing itself with own-brand jewellery such as Michael Hill watches.
Doak expected solid Christmas performance, particularly out of Australia.
Michael Hill shares closed yesterday at $1.05.
Arthur Lim is New Zealand investment director for Macquarie, which recommends the Michael Hill stock to investors. By attracting big investors like the New Zealand Super Fund, which were sometimes wary of retail stocks, Michael Hill International had made a breakthrough, Lim said.
"They know the risks and appear to be very comfortable. Michael Hill stands out because its performance is sustainable."
The company's successful expansion from New Zealand to Australia and now Canada was due to itsexpanding organically rather than by acquiring other companies, as The Warehouse had done in Australia, where it had to combine different cultures.
Michael Hill - the man - is confident about the expansion.
"It is no different than when you had one store - the business is behind the counter. If you lose sight of that you are in trouble.
"Keep it simple and basic with the product at the right price and presented well with clever advertising."
Michael Hill International has had downs as well as ups.
Hill remembers the worst decision was in the late 80s - soon after the company floated - when it developed Michael Hill Shoes.
"It was a silly thing to do. It was a case of saying 'hey there are no places to open a jewellery shop' - and how silly an idea was that really?
"As you go through life you make the odd trip and fall. The early days after going to Canada were the same.
"It's easy to be the champion of the school in Whangarei but there is a bigger world out there."
US may be next on agenda
Michael Hill International's next stop in its global expansion looks set to be the United States.
Twenty years after floating in 1986 the company has 200 stores including 20 in Canada.
And as it aims for 1000 stores by 2025, the company has indicated it is looking towards Britain.
But Canadian urban centres are based around the southern strip alongside the US border.
And company founder and chairman Michael Hill says the US - not Britain - may be the next move.
"We have been studying both. In that part of the world you cross the road and you are in another country," said Hill.
Americans were switched-on consumers - but they also liked jewellery more, he said.
"We are cutting out teeth very quickly in Canada. We are pretty close to the border on many of those shops," he said.
The retail markets were different but they were not more complicated.
"We learned that people have different values, such as the fact that Canadian men buy engagement rings in Canada, which does not happen here. You work out these things and it makes you stronger."
