10 years of Preciosa Ornela

2010
Difficult beginnings
Every beginning is difficult. And this was certainly the case for Ornela.
We had to move from Jablonec to Desná and Zásada.
A new Company Registration Number, Tax Identification Number, accounts, addresses.
A new environment awaited us within the framework of Ornela and within the framework of the Preciosa Group. We adapted and introduced a new SAP information system. Everything was new. However, all the new features and initial field conditions could not be allowed to influence our production, sales, money collection, payments…
Our strong motivation and feeling of solidarity helped. We wanted to show that the decline of the Jablonex Group had not been caused by our seed beads or our glass and that Ornela had a future and potential.
We presented our new PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ brand and began to disseminate it around the world, initially still in a transitional form in combination with the original JABLONEX brand.
We also appeared in Czech Television's "Retro" program.
And we completed our first year with distinction!

Hopefully, we haven´t forgotten anything important

Home news:
The Preciosa Ornela company isn´t retro anymore - they´ve just registered TWIN

2011
The worst is behind us
The first relatively "normal" year. We gradually resolved the teething problems in the system, internal relations, communications with the environs, the work environment, personnel and the internal budgets.
Our sales and production were successful, orders increased and turnover rose.
We slowly began to repair and improve the buildings, premises and equipment. And we are still doing so today. It was a lot of work, but also a source of joy which gave us a feeling of a job well done. The enthusiasm of the previous year's beginnings was still fully apparent.
We began to register new products so that our competitors could not easily copy us. The first new certified product was the unique TWIN two-hole bead and we also registered our early new bead, the FARFALLE.

2012
Uphill with increasing speed
The growth in demand continued, especially the demand for seed beads from Russia and Ukraine.
We began to have problems with capacity and delivery deadlines, with the dispatch management of production and with the premises for storage and shipping.
It was necessary to once again change the product management system in SAP and to introduce something like an "allocation system" for consignments to customers.
We transferred to the exclusive use of our PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Beads™ and PRECIOSA Traditional Czech Glass™ product brands.
The first Managing Director, Ing. Pavel Marek, moved to a different post within the group and was replaced by Ing. Miroslav Šebesta.
The SOLO bead was our next new registered product.

Go and get the biggest tent quickly. The seed beads are spilling out of the windows …

2013
We no longer fit
We presented our own models at the Made in Jablonec fashion show for the first time. And then every year thereafter.
The influx of orders continued and we produced and sold more and more.
The problems with a lack of storage room at the existing Ornela premises became unmanageable. In mid-April, we therefore commenced construction and Ornela received a wonderful gift for its fourth birthday; on 31st October, we completed a new modern warehouse in Zásada, which all our visitors, as well as us, have admired ever since.
We also began the tradition of popularising our products in books – the first of them was the book "Odyssey of the Masai" about our seed beads in Kenya.
Three seed beads were added to the group of registered beads: PELLET, THORN and VILLA.

2014
Our first turnover in excess of a billion
The year when our commercial successes culminated. Our sales exceeded one billion koruna for the first time and we subsequently achieved this two more times.
The influx of orders stabilised and the first signs of a slowdown in demand, especially for seed beads, appeared. The markets gradually became saturated. The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine after the annexation of the Crimea dealt a serious blow to our trade.
We published a beautiful bilingual book called "Story of the Seed Bead".
We held the first Open Day at our facilities in Desná and Zásada. It met with enormous interest and success; there were over two and a half thousand visitors.
We presented our most successful new product to date; the PIP bead.

2015
A record year
The year of Ornela's greatest turnover; we sold goods worth more than 1.1 billion koruna.
Wagons of our products and consignments were always full, but the locomotive of orders had already begun to slow down somewhere further up the line. The economic collapse of Russia and Ukraine began to manifest itself ever more intensely.
We further developed our marketing activities in print advertisements and on social networks.
We held a unique exhibition of antique seed bead rarities from the French collector Bertrand Fried in association with the Museum of Glass and Costume Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou and we published the accompanying book/catalogue "Enchanted by Seed Beads".
The newly registered beads were RIPPLE and CHILLI.

2016
A seven-digit turnover once again
For the third time, we sold goods worth more than one billion koruna, but orders continued to fall. After successfully dealing with the growth in capacity of the previous years, we now faced the opposite problem; namely, how to deal with the fall in demand.
In January 2016, we appeared in two of the most prestigious print publications in the world. National Geographic Magazine printed an article about our seed beads in Amazonia along with a photograph on the cover and an article about us appeared on the title page of the international edition of the New York Times.
A visit from the head of technological development at BMW in Desná at the beginning of April led to the beginning of our activities in the automotive area.
We published another book of seed bead projects by the designer Kerrie Slade called "Playful Perfection"
Our eleven registered products were joined by the CANDY and TEE beads.

2017
A year dedicated to glass from Desná
We faced an ongoing drop in orders and sales, but our results were still very good (in the black). This has never changed throughout the entire period of the existence of Ornela to date.
This year, we celebrated the 170^th anniversary of the tradition of the industrial production of glass in Desná; many of our marketing and PR activities were dedicated to this event.
We held the Design Desna exhibition with a unique color and graphic design, once again in cooperation with the Museum of Glass and Costume Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou. We also issued a book/catalogue upon this occasion entitled "Glass from Desná – Design Desná 1847 – 2017". We used the exhibition's graphic layout at our exhibition at the Ambiente Trade Fair in Frankfurt am Main one year later.
Another Open Day was held at Desná and it once again met with enormous interest amongst visitors. We received an Award from the International Triennial of Glass and Costume Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou. HILL rounded out our first dozen registered beads.

2018
The year of seed beads from Zásada
The demand for seed beads began to rise again slowly, but surely. However, our reduced capacity was unable to cope with the growing market demand, especially as a consequence of a lack of employees in blue collar professions. This year was mainly distinguished by a search for new colleagues – and a lot of time spent wondering at where they all were.
We achieved record results in the production and sale of VINOLOK glass stoppers. Unfortunately, we were then unable to repeat this performance, as the production of VINOLOK stoppers was devolved from Ornela and transferred to a newly established company within the Preciosa Group.
Just as we had devoted the previous year to glass from Desná, this year we focussed on seed beads from Zásada. We held an open Day in Zásada and published a book which extends beyond the bounds of Ornela as a producer. The book "Zásada Paradise – the Story of Czech Seed Beads" tells of the historical phenomenon of the municipality of Zásada as a tradition centre of seed bead production, including old photographs and eye-witness accounts.
The range of our registered seed beads grew to include BOW, KARO and ROLA.

2019
The tenth year and we're still moving
Orders for seed beads in particular doubled in comparison with the previous year. We have continued to struggle with delivery deadlines and a lack of workers, but the situation is gradually getting better and we are producing and selling more than in the last two years – in both koruna and tons.
We are facing and defending against a long-term drop in the sale of glass beads and pressing rods for bead production in order to preserve this unique production in our region and gradually develop it again.
We have entered a new phase of our involvement in the automotive project, we are continuing our plans for the essential certification of our processes, we want to strengthen our position with customers, especially as a design and technological partner, and there is increasing interest among prestigious brands in cooperating with us.
We are a stable, progressive company and we are the largest employer in the region with a stable and loyal collective of employee collectives. Our employees do not only come to work for money – and that, in addition to the ongoing tradition and our technological skill, is our greatest asset.