How the Sherwood Family Bought Back Daniel’s Jewelers

By Rob Bates | October 09, 2026

David Sherwood understood that Palladium Equity Partners had owned his family business for a dozen years and was ready to move on.

“Twelve years is too long in the tooth for any PE group,” the CEO of Daniel’s Jewelers tells JCK.

Generally, when private equity cashes out, it “flips” the company to another PE firm. However, last month, Sherwood flipped the script—he and other family members bought back the business, in partnership with AJS Creations. (Terms were not disclosed.)

Sherwood says that regaining control of the 100-store chain originally founded by his grandfather was “the best overall outcome for everybody.”

“It’s a rare opportunity,” he says. “It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for the last five years. I’m happy that we’re partnering with a strategic investor who saw the promise and the potential.

“We’re now part of the larger portfolio of companies,” he adds. “We can leverage a shared infrastructure. There are best practices that both businesses have learned over the years.”

Sherwood says he’s grateful that, under Palladium’s ownership, Daniel’s expanded from 73 stores to 100.

“We were able to accomplish a number of goals that we wouldn’t have the risk tolerance for as a family,” he says.

“The biggest challenge with PE is that we didn’t control our own destiny,” he explains. “We have always been an entrepreneurial company. Some of that gets constrained under institutionalized ownership when you have to work on their timetable. We look forward to those constraints being removed.”

Otherwise, Sherwood expects that little will change as far as Daniel’s day-to-day operations. He and the rest of its current management team will remain in charge, and the company will stay based out of Culver City, Calif. And it will retain its decades-old positioning as a credit jeweler with a heavily Hispanic clientele.

That differentiated model was what intrigued Sherwood’s new business partner, Tejas Shah, CEO of AJS Creations.

“Their customer is different, its branding is different,” Shah tells JCK.

He describes Daniel’s as “an opportunity that came our way. It was well-priced. It is not easy to grow to 100 stores.”

AJS already owns a variety of brands, including three e-tailers that primarily sell lab-grown diamonds—Grown Brilliance, Von Diamonds, and Clean Origin. In July, AJS purchased Charles & Colvard, the pioneering manufacturer of moissanite that had filed for bankruptcy four months prior.

Shah says that the businesses under the AJS umbrella now generate a combined $350 million in revenue “after just five years in business.”

In fact, days before AJS announced the Daniel’s deal, it bought yet another company: Jwlr.com, a Canadian e-tailer that specializes in custom.

Shah says that while Daniel’s will carry some AJS products, the company will remain independent.

“It will operate separately under the same management,” Shah says. “[Sherwood] knows the business in and out. We are very comfortable that he’ll be able to pull out strong results.”

Once Daniel’s is “stabilized,” Shah sees the chain possibly adding another 80 to 100 stores.

Sherwood says he isn’t expecting major expansion just yet, but he isn’t counting it out, either.

“We are only in seven states,” he says. “We’re well penetrated in California, and that’s it. If you look at our penetration in Texas and Florida, there’s huge greenfield opportunity in those states. We have only just scratched the surface.”

(Photo courtesy of Daniel’s Jewelers)