Editor’s Note
**Editor’s Note:** In this profile, Forbes senior editor Christopher Helman explores how Matthew Stuller built a billion-dollar jewelry empire not on romance, but on ruthless logistics and manufacturing efficiency. From a teenage gold seller to a ten-figure wholesaler, Stuller’s story is a masterclass in operational discipline.
Matthew Stuller dropped out of college after his first semester to sell gold pieces to jewelers in the ba… [+] Cody Pickens for Forbes
by Christopher Helman
October 12, 2024
Reading time: 8 minutes
Matthew Gordy Stuller was 15 when his mother dropped him off at the library in Lafayette, Louisiana, his hometown, to catch up on his studies. An indifferent student, he left his books to stroll downtown and saw in a jewelry store window a “promise” ring he thought might win over a particular girl. He convinced the store owner to sell him the $39.99 ring, which did win the girl, for $5 down and $5 a week. “I’ve always been a romantic,” he confesses.
However, feelings have little to do with Stuller, now 73, becoming the king of wholesale jewelry in the United States, with a net worth Forbes estimates at over $1 billion. Instead, he forged his fortune by relentlessly focusing on manufacturing processes, logistics, and meeting all the needs of his retail customers.
Stuller earned that weekly $5 by delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, and washing cars. He showed up every Saturday at 10 a.m. at the jewelry store to make his payment and then stayed to help. “They always needed their windows cleaned,” he recalls. Soon, he got a paid part-time job at the jewelry store, where the jeweler taught him to polish jewelry, carve rings, and set stones. “I loved it,” he says.
In his senior year of high school, Stuller would hide late at night in the janitor’s closet of his father’s dental clinic, repairing jewelry and experimenting with lost-wax casting (used by dentists to make bridges and crowns) to fabricate missing parts like clasps and links. Still, he needed to buy certain items. However, when he called the big distributors, they seemed rude. “It was like you were interrupting their day. ‘What do you want?'”
Stuller knew he could do better. So, after graduating 68th in a class of 69 in high school and completing one semester at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, he dropped out to start wholesaling to bench jewelers from the back of his new 1970 Datsun 240Z. “At first, I only sold gold pieces because that’s all I knew how to do,” he explains. Soon after, he found a jewelry company in New Orleans that was going bankrupt and bought its inventory and rolling display cases with a postdated check for $4,500, which he barely covered with a loan from a local bank where, not coincidentally, his father was a major customer. A few years later, when his father retired, Stuller bought his dental offices to house his growing collection of equipment, including furnaces, polishing devices, and a centrifugal casting machine.
His father also gave him a key piece of advice: Never hire a partner. So, why share equity? Today, half a century later, Stuller’s eponymous company, 100% family-owned, is still headquartered in Lafayette, where its largest production complex is located: 600,000 square feet of labs, manufacturing, and packaging, employing 1,500 workers.
Adding production from smaller plants in Mexico, Thailand, and India, Stuller fulfills an average of 6,000 orders per day, comprising nearly 130,000 items, some sourced from other manufacturers. A main ingredient: gold bullion. Stuller melts enough to produce over 200 pounds of gold alloys for casting daily.
The company generates about $800 million in annual revenue and leaves between $80 million and $100 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), according to Stuller. Forbes estimates it is worth at least $800 million. (The rest of his fortune comes from profits he has taken out of the operation.)
Stuller’s website highlights its wide range of products: jeweler’s tools, loose gemstones, engagement rings, custom bracelets. He says all jewelry retailers buy from him, including Tiffany, Harry Winston, and Cartier. His largest customer is Signet Jewelers, the parent company of mall giants Kay Jewelers, Zales, and Jared.
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