Tiffany grows African presence in its drive for ethical jewellery
The CEO says the jewellery retailer is expanding its workforce and even considering opening its first store in sub-Saharan Africa
Tiffany & Co has been expanding its workforce in sub-Saharan Africa — a region of almost one-billion people where the jewellery giant does not have a single store. More than a quarter of the New York-based company’s 1,500 global diamond cutters and polishers are now based in Africa, CEO Alessandro Bogliolo said in an interview in Cape Town. Tiffany has factories in Botswana and Mauritius with staff subject to “intensive training” over two years, he said, making it the only western luxury brand that does not outsource production of its African stones. Botswana is the world’s largest diamond producer after Russia, and is the only African country where Tiffany both buys and prepares its stones. While it also sources diamonds from mines in SA, Namibia and Sierra Leone, it will not do business in Zimbabwe and Angola because of the human-rights situation in those countries, Bogliolo said. “If you buy from a world-class brand, it’s because you trust that this brand has done all that is hum...
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