De Beers leaps into synthetic diamond sales
There's a canny strategy behind the move to protect its mined-diamond business
De Beers is tackling one of the biggest risks to its rough- diamond business head on by setting up its own synthetic- diamond production and sales facility, undercutting its competition and drawing a distinction in the marketing of natural and laboratory-grown diamonds. While the decision to move into laboratory-grown diamonds, which have the same look, hardness and chemical composition as natural diamonds, appears to be at odds with De Beers’s drive to nurture and protect its mined-diamond business, there is a canny strategy underlying the move. De Beers established a business called Lightbox Jewelry, with an initial focus on the US market, to deliver about 250,000 carats a year of cut and polished diamonds from 2020 at prices about 75% below those of other synthetic diamond producers, said De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver. De Beers is investing $94m over four years to build a plant delivering 500,000 carats or more of rough diamonds in Portland, Oregon, using the technology developed at...
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