In March 2011 Green + Benz welcomed Helen Dimmick as the new Managing Director. Helen is a renowned jewellery specialist and is highly respected within the jewellery industry. With over 14 years experience, Helen joins us from the world famous Tiffany & Co. store on London’s Bond Street.
Helen is a highly qualified, award winning gemmologist, diamond grader and a Fellow of the Gemmological Association – so she really knows her carats! Her passions are for people and jewellery – and bringing the two together with the aim of delivering an unsurpassed quality of experience to all Green + Benz customers.
When asked about her new position Helen states, ‘I have to confess to feeling absolutely delighted to be joining such an inspiring company. It’s a truly fantastic team of people and in the short time I’ve been here we already have some notable achievements under our belts, including our stunning new website, our exciting collaboration with celebrity designers Fei Liu and Sarah Ho and not least our new private viewing room for our clients in Chesterfield’.
So whether you visit us on line or in our showrooms you will experience the benefit of her experience and expertise.
Our History
Shane Green and Julie Benz never really planned to run a jewellery business together. After a year’s travelling, they opened their first craft and jewellery store, Uno, in 1991 on a back street of Chesterfield. Within a few years it had achieved national recognition from the Crafts Council. Shane studied jewellery making at Chesterfield College. His first collection of diamond set engagement rings were stunning, but they didn’t sell too well. Shane and Julie realised that their little silver shop in Chesterfield just wasn’t going to cut it, if they wanted to sell such prestigious jewellery.
In 1998, they spotted a small semi derelict building in the centre of Sheffield. They took out a loan and bought the building on Division Street. Whilst renovating it, they found that it would have been cheaper to knock it down and start again. After many stressful months, they managed to open our first purely jewellery store, Green + Benz, in October 1999. It was a real coup to be able to stock the designs of leading avant garde European designers, such as Niessing. Julie and Shane were overwhelmed with people looking for modern platinum engagement and wedding rings .
Julie and Shane knew they just had to open a second Green + Benz. Manchester opened in 2002, was a success from day one. Its size meant that we could display a wider choice of jewellery that we could at Sheffield. When they had started the Sheffield store, a workshop was squeezed into the top floor of the building. So when a huge freehold property came available just off the market place in Chesterfield, they leapt at it. Julie and Shane felt a strong attachment to the town where they’d opened their first store. If it hadn’t had been for the support of people in Chesterfield in the early days, then they’d never have had a business to grow. Fortunately, our stores have gone from strength to strength.
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