De Beers Halts Lab Grown Production
June 04, 24
(IDEX Online) - De Beers will no longer manufacture lab growns for its Lightbox brand, and will focus instead on producing industrial diamonds and on marketing the "unique attributes" of natural stones.
CEO Al Cook made the announcement at JCK, in Las Vegas, as parent company Anglo American continues to seek a buyer for the loss-making miner.
De Beers shook the diamond world in 2018 when it announced the launch of its Lightbox lab grown brand, at a fixed price of $800 per carat.
Over the next six years it launched premium and budget ranges, grading reports, bigger and more expensive stones, loose stones, stones sold in bricks and mortar stores as well as online, bridal (very briefly) and collaborations with jewelry partners. Last month it cut basic prices to $500 a carat.
De Beers will retain Lightbox as a brand, selling lab growns from its existing inventory, which is expected to last a year, but it will pivot Element Six, its lab grown subsidiary, back to producing industrial diamonds and consolidate three production centers into one.
Cook said De Beers wanted to revive interest in its core business of mined diamonds, and would do so through its new Origins strategy, marketing diamonds as a category, and through partnerships with two of the world's biggest diamond retailers, Signet (USA) and Chow Tai Fook (China).
"We truly believe we need to do better by telling the story of where the natural diamond comes from; why it's so special," he told Business of Fashion.
Pic courtesy Lightbox.