DTC Reaffirms Commitment to SoC, Outlines Changes

The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) has outlined the company’s vision and objectives for 2008 and beyond and reinforced its commitment to the Supplier of Choice (SoC) strategy. Among the changes are longer ITO’s and building partnerships with Sightholders

During the DTC’s January Sightholder Dinner, held on Tuesday evening, Varda Shine, managing director of the DTC, discussed the need for a more cooperative relationship with Sightholders, based on shared goals, standards, and responsibilities. Looking forward to the new contract period starting in 2008, Shine highlighted the DTC’s renewed emphasis on working with Sightholders and the need for the DTC and its Sightholders to "stand-up and be counted" on the issue of ethical business practices. She also introduced several innovations ahead of the new contract period, including:

• A promise to extend the ITO for the 2008 contract period to12 months.
• Providing a simplified but robust application process, recognizing an applicant’s expertise in specific types of rough diamonds.

• A greater focus on building a cooperative partnership with Sightholders that will deliver commercial benefits to the DTC and to Sightholders alike.
• The importance of working with partners that add value to the diamonds the DTC sells by doing what they do best regardless of where they operate in the diamond pipeline and regardless of their business model.
• Building the DTC’s reputation as the home of rough diamonds, the home of ‘Big Ideas’ and world-class services, the home of excellence and the home of the highest ethical business practices.
• Reinforcing the ethical standards required for doing business with the DTC and ensuring these standards and transparency remain core attributes required of all DTC clients.

Shine also said that the final plans on how to deliver the company’s strategic goals from 2008 would be confirmed following consultation with Sightholders and Brokers. This will include a series of workshops starting in February.

“The strategic goals of the DTC – driving consumer demand for diamond jewelry, making the diamond pipeline as efficient as possible, and ensuring that diamonds represent the highest standards in ethical business practice – had brought significant benefits,” Shine reflected on the past six years. “Our commitment to these goals has reinvigorated the industry and brought us from a period of negative growth in the 1990s, to a period of major growth in consumer demand for diamond jewelry.”

SoC however was met with criticism by many in the industry, including Sightholders. To this Shine said, ”In delivering this strategy, we have learned lessons that we will apply to the next contract period. We want to have an increasingly mature relationship with Sightholders. One based on shared responsibilities, as well as shared goals.”

In his speech, Nicky Oppenheimer, chairman of the De Beers Group, reaffirmed the commitment of the Oppenheimer family to the De Beers Group and the diamond industry. He shared his optimism for the future while outlining some of the significant issues the industry faced in 2006, including pressure on profitability.

The presentation by De Beers Group Managing Director Gareth Penny focused on the priority De Beers places on ethical business practices and sustainability across the company.

In a press release, the company said Penny also outlined the company’s unprecedented investment in diamond prospecting and new projects throughout the world and De Beers’ commitment to supporting the countries and communities where its diamonds are mined. The company did not provide specific figures.