Pearl Falco
Mumpreneur Showcase April 2021
Maiko Makito
Pearl FALCO
Manufacturer and Retailer of Pearl Jewelry from Ise Shima Japan, the birthplace of cultured pearls
Who are you?
Co-owner and heiress of family Japan’s based pearl jewelry company, PEARL FALCO.
How it all started?
In the origin of pearl farming, the birth place of cultured pearls, Ise Shima Japan, Pearl FALCO was founded by the Makito family in 1985.
Pearl FALCO is currently helmed by myself who took the reins from my father after resigning from a MNC in 2016. Since taking over, my vision for
the business is to tell the tale of our hometown to the world and pass our knowledge of pearls to the future generations, with the many stories and people’s love and devotion behind each piece of pearl jewellery. In 2019, Pearl FALCO expanded its operations to Singapore with the opening of its gallery to foster and develop a personal relationship with its clients and to tell the story of Akoya pearls. At the core of its business, Pearl FALCO showcases the beauty of cultured pearls and how these living gems transcend the true expression of self-adornment.
Tell us more about your business
Singapore, Pearl FALCO specialises in the jewellery creation and customisation experience. The intention is to focus on bringing clients’ vision to life with confidence and love, and helping them maintain the pieces with the aid of their professional team based in Japan. Since its inception, Pearl FALCO has created at least 4,000 unique designs of pearl jewellery.
What made you decide to start this business?
The first reason is my responsibility as eldest child. I have one younger sister and both of us did not expect to take over because we had seen how difficult running a company was from parents since childhood. That’s why my sister became a doctor and I worked for MNC and came to Singapore as expat. But parents were getting older and family business was challenging more and more due to Japan’s economy. So in 2016 I decided to take over and started the oversea business outside of Japan to try to overcome this difficulty and make the company service for many years to come.
What is your favourite part of running this business?
Many people do not know the real value of pearls nor how to differentiate the quality of pearls. Pearls are born in the nature with people’s love and devotion. All are unique, and no two pearls are exactly alike. I have been sharing our knowledge about pearls to our customers and in workshop, seminars, jewllery schools like NAFA or Raffles Designs, JDMIS and then more people here actually started to appreciate and like pearls more, which made me motivated more.
What is your best selling product?
We have over 4000 different pearl jewelries in our galleries in Japan and the most of them are one design at time. We make one piece by one piece in our Japanese craftsman team in Japan. I’m confident with our product’s quality and maintenance service.
