Sir Michael Hill takes his health very seriously and believes he may, in fact, be getting younger. Photo / Nick Reed
Sir Michael Hill takes his health very seriously and believes he may, in fact, be getting younger. Photo / Nick Reed
Jewellery magnate Sir Michael Hill hosted this month’s NZ Golf Open at his private course in Queenstown before visiting Auckland on his superyacht VvS1 for the launch of The Bachelor.
1. You first came to fame with "Hello, Michael Hill Jeweller". Why did you stop fronting the TV ads? We were getting too whacky. I was doing ads underwater in aqua lungs, you know; "blub, blub, blub Michael Hill Jeweller". So it was time for a change. To be successful in business, you can copy others or you can take a totally unique position. Lately, we've been copied to such a degree that we need to shake them off. So we're going for quite a radical positioning with our global ad campaign "We're for love".
2. Your new ad debuted at the Super Bowl this year. Was it a success? We got 1.4 million hits the next day. It was quite cheeky, we had the advert then on the end just put "Michael Hill". So everyone was texting, "who the heck's this?". We've also been on in cinemas with 50 Shades of Grey, God help us. Those ads really sink in when you see them on the big screen. They usually have me in tears.
3. Was including gay couples in the ads a political statement? No, we don't care what type of love you're into. We take no stand. But love it or hate it, it is there. They're all humans, they've all got a point of view and it all is expressing love and if it's making them feel in harmony with life to achieve bigger things, well hey - that's cool.
4. You worked with Kim Kardashian during your first foray into the US market in 2010. How much did that cost? About half a million. We probably didn't pursue it long enough but then, is she quite the image in the long run? I mean the family's gone a bit loopy. Isn't the father having a sex change or something? So probably it worked out for the best.
5. And you gave away a $1 million diamond ring to the "world's best couple". How did that work out? We did. That couple are still friends. They text and email me all the time. They've had a child and they haven't sold the ring, which is interesting. We also provided rings for The Bachelor in Canada and New Zealand.
Lady Christine and Sir Michael Hill at the launch of The Bachelor NZ. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
6. You have almost 300 shops worldwide now. How is your goal of 1000 stores by 2022 looking? We haven't given up on that one. We have eight stores in the United States now and we're opening two in New York in April. In a year we're opening in the biggest shopping centre in the world, American Dream. So this will be a very interesting, testing year for us. We're still trying to work out America. It's very difficult. Fifty per cent of sales are done on credit supplied by the store owner. So if they pay off the engagement ring early, they'll keep that credit going and buy the matching earrings and the little pendant and on it goes. It's totally different to doing business down here.
7. Is there a succession plan for the Michael Hill dynasty? Oh there definitely is. It sounds arrogant, but we should be the first global retail brand that's ever come out of New Zealand. My daughter Emma is very much the businesswoman. She spent five years setting up our business in Canada. My son Mark's the artistic one. He's a full-time sculptor. So we've got the yin and the yang. If you take all the great brands, they all have a very powerful artistic side which gives them a point of difference. Our children live on our 200ha of beautiful land in the Wakatipu Basin where the golf course is, and they're our best friends. One thing we always do, and this could work for any family, is have four meetings a year with our lawyer and accountant and partners there, and we discuss the strategy for everything we have, so that we're all working together, to form a dynasty really.
"We have eight stores in the United States now and we're opening two in New York in April." Photo / John Stone
8. When have you been down and how did you bounce back? When I was young I always felt pretty bad. I was bullied at school. I felt very insecure, very nervous. Those first 25, 30 years weren't much fun at all. But then a house fire changed all that. It made me realise I'd been playing life too safe.
9. What are the best and worst aspects of Kiwi culture? The only disadvantage of living here is that it's so much like paradise that people back off before achieving anywhere near what they could do, so it forms a complacency. The best people in our business are outsiders, because they haven't got sucked into going out for a big booze-up and sleeping in the next morning.
10. Are you retired? I hate that word. I hope not. If you find there's no reason to bounce out of bed first thing in the morning to achieve your goals, all the switches are going to rapidly switch off. We notice a lot of people our age are always talking about someone who has died. Their dominant thoughts are about dying. I don't like talking about death, I don't like thinking about it.
11. Do you have a plan to live forever? I do actually. Well, obviously we can't but we're going to give it a good shot. With medical research now, there's no reason why you can't live to 100 in really good condition. There are lots of substances you should be on, anti-cancer things. They've discovered a system where you can lengthen the telomeres on your chromosomes, so I'm on those. With health, being in harmony is number one. Some form of transcendental meditation is so good for clearing away the self-chatter. The other thing is what you eat. You can see what I'm eating for breakfast here; cinnamon to lower blood pressure, bee pollen, flax seed oil, oats soaked overnight in water, fruit and a teaspoon of turmeric with olive oil and pepper which is a great anti-inflammatory. I eat no sugars, fried food or sodas. If I do drink, it's white wine mainly.
12. You cut a trim figure. What else do you do to keep healthy? Well, it keeps you like a Norwegian sardine, which is good. Because you don't see overweight people in old age homes because they pass away quicker. So it's a good reason to stay slim and fit. I feel every bit as fit as when I was 55 and I'm now 76. In fact I think I'm becoming younger actually. It's important to have a blood test every six months and tweak any deficiencies in minerals or vitamins. But I'm on nothing pharmaceutical. To sleep at night I always take melatonin which is natural. Everybody should be on it. You should be on a milligram of that right now. No, seriously.
