A tactical masterstroke reaffirms the legacy and stronghold of natural diamonds, Forevermark rebranded De beers Forevermark, De beers launches ‘Building Forever’ and ‘Code of Origin’

Strengthening the future of natural diamonds has been the topmost agenda for De beers, the diamond mining conglomerate with a stronghold on the diamond industry for over a century. With that spirit, it engaged in a virtual press interaction on July 7, sharing a host of new projects and milestones to achieve by the diamond brand as part of its Building Forever goals by 2030. The meet was helmed by Stephen Lussier, executive vice-president, Consumer Affairs, and moderated by Sachin Jain, MD, De Beers India operations.

In a landmark move for the natural diamond sector, Lussier and Jain announced the association of De Beers with Forevermark for building better trust in the category. “Forevermark will now be called De beers Forevermark.  The Building Forever program will reemphasize the role of natural diamond miners as environmental catalysts. It will build a stronger positive association to Forevermark and thus its end-consumer. This will be a big change for worldwide markets in the later half of 2021,” said Lussier.

Weighing in on the rivalling force of lab-grown diamonds, Lussier maintained that renewable energy doesn’t cover all LGD formation processes as claimed. On the other hand, there is strong dialogue between high-end retail chains such as Cartier and Tiffany, and their sightholders over the need for ethical, harmless diamond sourcing, a topic De Beers has mastered with its 2030 Building Forever roadmap.

Globally, young consumers are connected more than ever and feel it worthwhile to invest in brands caring towards the nature. “Thus, De Beers is coming out as positive problem solvers now. With the Building Forever initiative, De Beers is committed to carbon neutrality and net positive biodiversity by 2030. For every hectare we mine, we conserve 6 hectares. Diamonds come mostly from the developing nations, so Forevermark is supporting 10,000 women entrepreneurs, while improving workforce diversity in diamond sector, ” Lussier said.

Another impressive project is under way for De Beers. The global behemoth is piloting a program associating its rich legacy and equity with natural diamond below 8pointers.

The brand is roping in 7 select sightholders and 14 Indian jewellers to execute their Code of Origin programme. It’s a master move by the mining behemoth to give every single diamond a show of positivity and goodwill of its rich and trusted legacy. “The code of origin not only gives the ultimate guarantee of the source but also instils a greater sense of pride in every natural diamond (below 8 pointers) purchased from its stable,” said Jain.  

“Consumer demand is strong, but we need to instill positivity in the trade, which starts with ‘Building Forever’ and the ‘Code of Origin’ program. It is an integrated, long-term project to make consumers feel positive about natural diamonds,” concluded Lussier.

The virtual meet also touched upon the most pertinent topic of trade blow due to the pandemic, Lussier said that the consumers’ return to diamond jewellery has been promising.”The first half of this year looks extraordinary with triple digit growth in China and India. In America, double digit growth has been seen now as against 2019. No doubt that diamond jewellery demand has been a star performer in 2020 luxury category,” he said. The De Beers lumniary also stated how with increase in traffic, high-end jewellery demand coming back. Talking about two important diamond markets such as Hong Kong and China, Lussier stated that while the former has been experiencing a trade low due to lack of tourism for Covid vigilence, the latter has experienced revenge expenditure in May 2020 and now has a strong in high-end trade and boom in mass segment.

“Starting from October 16, 2020, we have seen good trajectory in business. In India, there has been a break after Akshay Tritiya, where historically weak markets woke up to new demands in June and July. Regarding wedding seasons in India, we see that small weddings give more resource for jewellery-related investment,” said Jain. He added that the average purchase has been higher adlfter lockdown and diamonds above 1 carat are selling faster than ever.

Analysing pandemic trend, Lussier said the first factor for this phenomenal market response has been the psychological impact of lockdown and health crisis, which focuses people to depart from daily issues and depend on timeless symbols of love stronger than ever. The second factor is the need to reward oneself for overcoming challenges and thus, the rising curve of self-purchase.

Written by Shubham Dasgupta

RJ exclusive