De Beers Adds Five Sightholders, Adjusts Allocations for Existing Clients

(IDEX Online News) – The De Beers Group of Companies yesterday (Tuesday) announced five new Sightholders for the remainder of the 2012-2015 Supplier of Choice (SoC) contract period.

The new Sightholders have been added as a result of the company’s modified SoC re-planning process, which allows businesses that demonstrated enough demand through De Beers’ auction sales in 2012 to qualify for term contract supply and Sightholder status.

Sightholder status is subject to De Beers’ forecast rough diamond availability and the eligible applicant’s submission of a Contract Proposal Questionnaire (CPQ) as part of the 2013 ITO (intention to offer) re-planning process.

The company also said its ITO re-planning process has enabled existing Sightholders to qualify for new rough diamond allocations as part of their 2013-2014 ITOs. The new allocations are subject to forecast availability and reflect Sightholders’ demonstrated demand for rough diamond categories outside of their 2012-2013 ITOs.

“The introduction of dynamism into this contract period is a further evolution in our Supplier of Choice strategy, which provides a greater level of flexibility for Sightholders and enables De Beers’ distribution to be more efficient,” said Varda Shine, executive vice president, Global Sightholder Sales. “We look forward to building strong and productive partnerships with our new Sightholders.”

De Beers will supply 82 Sightholders globally for the 2013-2014 ITO period, which begins on March 31.