Crown Jewel

Though she was initially reluctant to get involved with the jewelry industry, Karin Mayr, founder of Sabika, has created an empire — by women, for women.

If Pittsburgh-based company Sabika, Inc. had a theme song, it would likely be “We Are Family.” Sabika, which sells handmade Swarovski crystal jewelry, was founded in 2001 by Karin Mayr, who moved to Pittsburgh from Austria with her family in the mid-’80s.

Today, the steadily growing, multimillion-dollar company is owned and run by Mayr, her husband and two of their three daughters. But Mayr says the full Sabika clan also includes the 600-plus women in 47 states who work as consultants, selling the jewelry through the direct-sale model of in-home parties.

“The people who work with us feel [Sabika] is a family — and not just my immediate family,” she says. “Because we support women and decent work environments. Because we care, and they know that. I often hear, ‘I want to be part of the Sabika family.’ So there’s something bigger going on than just jewelry.”

Sabika’s mission is to be “a company by women, for women,” and that’s a crucial aspect of Mayr’s business philosophy, as well as her company’s success. Before all of this, Mayr had worked for more than a dozen years as a trend forecaster and marketing consultant to European fabric mills, including Donna Karan — but a partnership at a British menswear firm made her rethink her vocation.

“I’d always been pretty successful in my career — until then,” she recalls. “I was the only woman in leadership there, and no matter what I said, it wasn’t done. I began to see women as the ones who did the work, without the rewards. And I have three daughters, so women’s issues are very close to my heart. So I finally said, ‘I don’t want to work for men anymore.’”

Around that time, Mayr’s husband, Konrad, was introduced to a European  jewelry designer, Sabine, who was looking to get into the American market. Konrad suggested the idea to his wife — but she was adamantly not interested.

However, a visit to Sabine’s studio opened her eyes to the inherent beauty of Swarovski crystals (first created in Austria in the 1890s). She decided that if she could slightly alter the jewelry’s design to suit American styles, it might prove popular. She was correct.

Mayr initially designed the jewelry herself, before co-designing with her eldest daughter, Alexandra Mayr-Gracik, graduate of the renowned Fashion Institute Vienna; today, Alexandra is Sabika’s head designer. And the pieces are handmade by German and Austrian artisans.

Pittsburgh’s economic climate in 2001 hardly made it an ideal place to launch a business, and Mayr had some lean years initially. But she says that once she settled on home-party selling, sales took off, as did the number of consultants (from a multitude of backgrounds).

“If they want to work one day a month, that’s fine,” Mayr says. “Or they can turn it into a significant career.”

Selling Sabika is, as its promotional material puts it, “more than a job — it is a lifestyle,” and it’s one that’s built around buzzwords like “joy,” “beauty,” “confidence” and  “opportunity.” By using the direct-sales model, Sabika doesn’t incur costs for advertising (it’s all word of mouth), real estate or payroll — so the jewelry can remain “an affordable luxury,” as Mayr describes it. Prices in the most recent catalogue (which features daughter No. 3, Austrian actress Mirian, on the cover) range from $29 to $259.

Behind the steady growth, Mayr says, is a low-pressure, socially centered approach to sales: “To this day, I teach [our consultants], ‘Please don’t think anybody should or has to buy this product. Give people a good time and then see what happens.’” The most successful consultants, she says, are nurses and teachers because “I think they care.”

In the long run, Pittsburgh proved to be the ideal setting for Sabika, she says, because of Pittsburghers themselves.

“I’ve lived on different continents, in at least a dozen cities — but I can honestly say I’ve never encountered so much helpfulness as in Pittsburgh.” As she planned Sabika, Mayr was inspired by the story of Dave Longaberger, the Ohioan who turned a humble basket company into a classic American example of direct-sales success.

“So I told people, ‘You know what? I want to be the next Longaberger — in the jewelry business. But to do that, would you mind having a home party for me?’” To her surprise, Mayr says, “They always said yes! They didn’t just respond to me — they carried me through.”