Lightbox and Lab Growns: It's Complicated
October 02, 24
It was something of a surprise to see Lightbox announce the launch of new marketing campaigns last week.
The De Beers lab grown company said in June that it would no longer be manufacturing diamonds.
And that sounded like it might be the end of the road for Lightbox. But manufacturing and selling aren't the same thing.
It seems there are enough leftovers from the company's factory - opened in Portland, Oregon, USA, in 2020 - to keep it going for the time being.
And if supplies run low, there are plenty more places where they can stock up.
De Beers and lab growns have always been uncomfortable bedfellows. The launch of Lightbox in 2018 said: "We need to have a foot in both camps," rather more than: "Lab growns, gosh what an exciting prospect!"
The current switch, from maker to marketer, has also been a little awkward. The press release promoting Lightbox's "accessibly priced fashion jewelry" airbrushes out any mention of De Beers.
You'd be forgiven for thinking they'd prefer it if ordinary consumers didn't make the link between a high-end icon and high street fashion. That the more distance between them, the better.
I asked Lightbox's New York-based PR company about the company's transition. They said Lightbox wasn't moving out of lab grown.
"While it was announced at JCK that production at the Gresham facility (near Portland) is transitioning to industrial applications," they said.
"Lightbox is continuing to innovate as brand and remains committed to delivering exceptional value to consumers with its accessibly priced trend-driven jewelry and fashion forward collections.
So where were the diamonds coming from? De Beers' own people were a little more forthcoming but still not big on detail.
My first request prompted this response: "At JCK, we communicated that Element Six (our synthetic diamond industrial business which had also been producing LGDs for Lightbox) would suspend production of LGDs for jewellery to focus on high-tech industrial applications.
"However, Lightbox as a brand is continuing as it plays an important role in supporting the differentiation between LGDs and natural diamonds as LGD prices continue to decline and they are increasingly used in fashion jewellery."
I'd been hoping for something straightforward, so I asked again.
This time they told me: "Element Six (also a De Beers business) has until recently mainly used the Oregon facility for Lightbox production (Element Six has a number of other facilities globally where it has been producing synthetic diamonds and other superabrasive materials for industrial purposes for decades).
"Lightbox has sufficient existing inventory from Element Six to meet the brand's needs for the foreseeable future. As such, Element Six will focus on using the Oregon facility to address the needs of the industrial sectors. Lightbox remains a wholly-owned subsidiary of De Beers."
To put things into perspective, De Beers has long been acclaimed for its marketing genius. It created the modern diamond industry, it inspired buyers with lines like A Diamond is Forever (1947).
It even persuaded a generation of young gentlemen that they must spend a month's salary (or what they wanted everyone to think was their month's salary) on a sparkler for their intended.
But its repositioning of Lightbox has, by comparison, been a muddle. It has failed to address obvious questions in a clear and simple manner and it has deliberately dodged any mention of De Beers.
The new Lightbox website says: "We grow our diamonds using 100% WIND POWER in a lab in Portland, Oregon."
Close, but not quite. Past tense would be more accurate. The Portland lab now produces industrial rather than gem quality diamonds.
I see the difficulty for De Beers. It's a bit like one of those tricky on-off relationships. It's complicated.
Everyone thought De Beers had broken up with lab growns. There was one of those tense "it's not you, it's me" conversations and they went their separate ways.
And now it seems they're back together, after one of those "Can't live with, can't live without" conversations.
But they're still not entirely at ease with it all, like a couple of teenagers who won't hold hands in public.
Have a wonderful weekend.