Hillberg & Berk is about creating beautiful jewelry and
empowering women. So when CEO and founder Rachel Mielke moved her
Canadian-based, luxury jewelry company from her kitchen table to a
bricks-and-mortar store, she wanted a contractor committed to encouraging women
in the trades.
Mielke heard about PCL through her participation in an
association for Canadian business leaders. The partnership started with the
renovation of Hillberg & Berk’s first store in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Cognizant of Mielke’s vision to empower women through education, inspiration,
and opportunity, PCL ensured the project team
featured a strong female presence and project manager.
TRANSFORMING RETAIL
SPACES TO SPARKLE
In 2016, Mielke employed PCL’s Special Projects team to transform a former
furniture store with a warehouse into a commercial office space and
distribution center. PCL carried out a complete Head
Office renovation and interior demolition to make a
space designed specifically for Hillberg & Berk.
As Hillberg
& Berk continued to grow, PCL formed a national partnership with the luxury
jewelry brand. As part of this ongoing relationship, PCL has built retail
locations across the prairies.
The design concept for the franchise’s retail locations was of
a “dream closet” with French provincial flair. This saw PCL installing retail
display cabinets, special lighting, mirrors, and built-in storage cases, and
painting rose gold accents to achieve the right look and feel.
All Hillberg & Berk stores other than the Flagship were
built within active malls. PCL was careful to respect mall guidelines regarding
noise during peak hours and stuck to tight schedules to ensure the shops were
open during busy shopping seasons and holidays.
To meet these challenges, PCL sole-sourced the projects and
whenever possible incorporated architectural features that were already in
place. Items with long lead times were ordered as early as possible, and field
measurements were captured as soon as the team’s steel-toed boots stepped
on-site. By taking these steps and collaborating with the owners and interior designers,
PCL delivered the “dream closets” on time, on budget, and on brand.