"In the beginning we found blue goes very well in China, and we thought it might be temporary, but later we found out that it is consistent," Pyrah says, adding it might be the reason that all Swarovski's boutiques have the background colour of blue, and why customers believe blue is the symbol of the brand.

Swarovski's products also extend to home decorative items, a big seller in China. Pyrah says the main reason is the brand not only has products for gift giving, but also introduces new products for every festival throughout the year.

So far, Swarovski's biggest challenge in China is to keep up with the speed at which the market is moving.

"We have to keep the whole company moving with the fastest market in the world, such as the supply chain, logistics and personnel management," Pyrah says. "It sounds easy to keep opening stores, but you have to know in which cities, at which locations."

In the past few years, the company has had to move offices and double staff numbers annually.

In China, Swarovski has wholly owned boutiques in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In other cities, it sells through local dealers. Pyrah says the firm sees huge potential in second-tier cities, such as Chengdu, Chongqing and Hangzhou. "We may take over some cities from our dealers in the future," she says, stressing that for the time being the balance between wholly owned stores and joint ventures is very good.

"The infrastructure is very important for retailing," she says. "You have to be an expert in each city, which is not easy China has too many cities, it is more efficient to use local dealers in many cities."

Swarovski was established more than 100 years ago and has made creative products its hallmark. The philosophy of founder Daniel Swarovski was "to constantly improve on what is good".

The firms global sales stood at 2.14 billion euros (US$2.72 billion) last year, half of which came from its component businesses, the other half from its consumer goods business. For its component business, 45 per cent of revenues came from China, due to the country's position as the world's largest garment manufacturer.

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