Swiss Riffs on the Gold Bar, from Hello Kitty to Snoopy

The Swiss are turning gold ingots and coins into a consumer product. PAMP, one of the top refiners in Switzerland, has started providing retailers with whimsical riffs on the gold bar theme.

They’re not like the 400-ounce bars that sit in bank vaults for decades. They’re more like designer gold, devised to appear to popular taste. PAMP’s small ingots now come stamped with Hello Kitty for the Korean market, many-armed goddesses for India, and Snoopy for the U.S. The latest product is for Paris retailer CPoR, a 1-oz bar featuring a heart motif drawn by Jean Paul Gaultier, better known for dressing pop stars Kylie Minogue and Madonna. “Gold is becoming mainstream,’’ says Mehdi Barkhordar, PAMP’s managing director. “These retail products bring 10 percent of our sales but 30 percent of our profits.”