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Bacanovic's Cornucopia of Plans for Leighton
With nary a hair of his signature coif out of place, Peter Bacanovic is working on another rebuilding project: Fred Leighton.
Several years after the Merrill Lynch broker was fired, banned from the securities industry and completed a jail term for insider trading, Bacanovic is optimistic and even has a sparkle in his eye -- possibly reflecting back the thousands of carats of diamonds surrounding him.
Bacanovic, who signed on as president of the 37-year-old estate jeweler in January, has big plans for a firm that has been in turmoil this year. He aims to bring the company out of bankruptcy within eight to 12 weeks; will open a third store, in Beverly Hills, this month, and talks of opening stores in Asia and the Middle East in the near future.
Currently known solely for antique jewelry, the firm also will inaugurate a Fred Leighton collection to be sold in its stores and distributed in exclusive wholesale accounts. A new Web site, which will exhibit the company's wares and offer insight to its curating, will launch shortly. Advertising, marketing and promotional initiatives are also in Bacanovic's blueprints.
"We've been working hard to set the stage for the fourth quarter and to have all of these elements work together in concert," he said.
Fred Leighton was founded in New York by Murray Mondschein, who later changed his name to Fred Leighton. Leighton brought vintage fine jewelry to the forefront of fashion at a time when it was customary for jewelers to break apart old pieces for reuse of the materials. Throughout his career, Leighton sought pieces ranging from Victorian diamond jewelry to Art Deco wares for his 2,000-square-foot Madison Avenue emporium. In 1998, he opened a second, 1,800-square-foot location in The Bellagio in Las Vegas.
In 2006, Ralph Esmerian, a highly regarded jeweler and art collector whose personal jewelry and objet d'art collection has been heralded as one of the world's finest, acquired Fred Leighton in cooperation with Bacanovic's former employer, Merrill Lynch's Global Asset Based Finance Group. The two men met through Helen Davis Chaitman, a Phillips Nizer attorney who did work for Esmerian.
The house of Leighton and Esmerian has been in flux over the past several months,...