Diamonds
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Diamonds that benefit Africa spark a chord
By Michelle Graff
April 10, 2009
Portland, Maine--When Day's Jewelers President Jeff Corey debuted MotiGanz Diamond Group's "Made in Botswana" diamonds at his Portland, Maine, store before the holidays, he had a bold question for the younger attendees: What did they really think of diamonds?
What he discovered might surprise some retailers who believe that consumers care little about the issue of conflict diamonds.
Corey says all of the 25- to 35-year-old men he spoke to that evening confided that up to that point, they "had a bad taste in their mouth" about diamonds, believing that the stones "are the root of evil."
But the men really took to the idea of the Made in Botswana brand and its collection of stones sourced, cut and polished at the MotiGanz factory in Botswana, where 96 percent of employees are natives, says MotiGanz spokeswoman Orly Samid.
MotiGanz is a sightholder client of the Diamond Trading Co. (DTC), the rough distribution and marketing arm of De Beers, which, in recent years, has started sharing its diamond wealth with the African nations where the stones are mined.
Day's is currently the only U.S. jewelry chain to carry Made In Botswana diamonds, which are now available at all six stores in the Day's Jewelers chain, located in Maine and New Hampshire.
And while the line just launched in November, it wasn't the first time Corey got the impression that the origin of diamonds might be an issue that is starting to matter to his customers--regardless of age.
The jeweler was sharing a ski lift with a lifelong Day's customer who told Corey that his wife rejected the idea of getting a 2-carat diamond as an anniversary present, despite the fact that she received a diamond engagement ring before they were wed 25 years ago.
The reason: Her perception of diamonds had shifted since seeing the 2006 film Blood Diamond, which portrayed Sierra Leone during the late 1990s civil war, which was fueled, in part, by the country's diamond trade. The Kimberley Process has cut the trade of conflict diamonds to a trickle, but concerns linger.
"I think the blood diamond issue is more significant to the consumer than we, as jewelers, realize," Corey says.
In November and December, sales of Made in Botswana diamonds accounted for about 8 percent of holiday sales at Day's Jewelers. Corey sees the brand as one with great growth potential.
"It's a refreshing message during difficult times," he says.
Erasing guilt of luxury
Days Jeweler's and MotiGanz aren't the only ones underlining the origin of diamonds these days.
In September, Birks and Mayors, which operates stores in Canada, Florida and Georgia, began selling "Botswana Diamonds," sourcing the brand from DTC Botswana, De Beers' partnership with the southern African nation's government.
Birks and Mayors spokeswoman Anny Kazanjian says since the launch, sales of the Botswana Diamonds brand have been "excellent."
"People want to do the right thing, and if it means making a choice, they seem to be leaning toward the politically correct one," she says. "The consumer is very socially conscious and well informed, and they are 'voting' for companies and their respective products with their wallet."
The diamonds, sourced through DTC Botswana and sold as part of a joint venture between DTC sightholders Star Diamonds and Tache, are available at Birks stores in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as in Mayors' two Florida stores and another in Atlanta's tony Buckhead neighborhood.
Another company promoting its diamonds as "conflict-free" is JKD Namibia, an affiliate of DTC sightholder Julius Klein Diamonds and local partner Dinamo Group, which started providing certificates of origin from Namibia.
And jeweler Sean Dunn, of the family-owned J.R. Dunn Jewelers in Florida, was so inspired by the idea of ethically sourced diamonds that he launched an entire line of jewelry around them.
Dunn started "Precious Earth Fine Jewelry," a line crafted of recycled metals and ethically sourced diamonds from Namibia, after his father, store founder James Robert Dunn, returned from a meeting in New York and brought up the topic of beneficiation, or giving back to local communities where diamonds are mined.
The idea that those who live on the land that yields diamonds should profit from them struck a chord with Dunn.
"Once I really understood and grasped that concept, it was awe-inspiring," Dunn says. "It took on a whole life of its own."
It's wrong to assume that consumers don't have ethical qualms about diamonds simply because they don't come in the store and start discussing those concerns with their local jeweler, he says.
Especially in these difficult economic times, consumers who have money are feeling guilty about making large purchases, a shame that most definitely spreads to diamonds and fine jewelry, Dunn says.
Ethically sourced diamonds might ease some of that guilt, otherwise, "we're not really giving people a reason to feel good about it," says Dunn, who offers Precious Earth in J.R. Dunn's two stores, in Fort Lauderdale and Lighthouse Point, Fla., and hopes other retailers will pick up the collection.
A recent "Luxury Considered" study conducted by Ledbury Research for De Beers supports the notion that today's consumer is starting to care more about the origin of goods and the stories behind the purchases they make.
The study aimed to rout out the trends and forecast the future of high-end purchases, and it includes in-depth interviews with 21 luxury-sector experts.
A heightened interest in environmental, ethical and social responsibility among today's luxury consumers was one of the major findings of the study, which also suggested that celebrities and higher profiles in general have put luxury brands under greater scrutiny.
About 30 percent to 40 percent of luxury consumers in the United States, Europe and Japan claim to be concerned with purchasing responsibility, according to the report.
Corey wholeheartedly agrees with the report's conclusion that the American consumer is growing increasingly aware of social and environmental issues.
"I absolutely agree with it, and I think it's here to stay," he says.
Editor's note: This story first appeared in the March 2009 print edition of National Jeweler.
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Diamonds
Jewelers of America is calling on the Kimberley Process to fully and quickly implement a work plan to address the serious concerns surrounding Zimbabwe's non-compliance with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, the system designed to keep conflict diamonds out of the international trade, and the reported human rights abuses in the Marange diamond fields. Read More
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