(IDEX Online) - Family-owned Gunderson's Jewelers has bought the 135-year-old watch and jewelry retailer JB Hudson, based in Minneapolis, USA. Gunderson's, founded by watchmaker George Gunderson in Sioux City, Iowa, in 1945, now has five stores in the Midwest and is owned and run by his grandson Brian Gunderson.It bought JB Hudson from the Pohlad Companies, a holding company for mor...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has proposed paying its first dividend since 2016 after annual profit more than doubled on the back of a sales recovery.Net profit jumped to $24.3 million for 2020, compared with $10.6 million in 2019, the miner reported Thursday. The company, which owns the Let??eng deposit in Lesotho, was one of the few major diamond producers to record revenue growth for the year,...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Alrosa sold $372m of rough and polished in February, a modest seven per cent increase on last year.By contrast De Beers, its biggest rival, saw comparative sales rise more than 50 per cent.Alrosa described the current balance between supply and demand as "comfortable" both for miners and rough buyers."The recovery in demand for diamond jewelry in key markets well continued in early...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Pandora today reported a growth in sales during February, despite a quarter of its 2,700 stores remaining closed because of the pandemic.The Danish jeweler, best known for its charm bracelets, said year-on-year organic growth for the month was up 12 per cent and total sell-out growth was up seven per cent.That translates into a quarter to date organic growth of four per cent...Read More
RAPAPORT... Platinum Guild International (PGI) will award up to half a million dollars to manufacturers, designers or retailers who commit to focusing on platinum jewelry.The money will go to one or more members of the industry as part of a three-year program to develop demand for, and speed growth of, platinum jewelry in the US, PGI said Tuesday. The organization will give out a maximum of $150,0...Read More
RAPAPORT... Signet Jewelers has launched a custom-jewelry design hub at a number of its Jared stores across the US, allowing its customers to create one-of-a-kind pieces easily.The Jared Foundry will be located inside 19 of the jeweler's locations, including in New York, California, Texas, and its hometown of Ohio, the company said Tuesday. Customers will work with one of Jared's 1,400 artisans an...Read More
RAPAPORT... Tiffany & Co. has named Ruba Abu-Nimah as executive creative director, it said Tuesday. She will succeed Reed Krakoff in the role, Abu-Nimah is the first major creative hire for the company since Krakoff exited following its takeover by LVMH. Before joining Tiffany, she was senior vice president and creative director at beauty and makeup giant Revlon. Abu-Nimah was also the fi...Read More
RAPAPORT... Sales momentum continued for the two largest diamond miners in February amid higher rough prices and strong retail demand in the US and China.De Beers raked in $550 million at its second sales cycle of the year, an increase of 52% versus the equivalent trading session in 2020, it reported Wednesday. Alrosa saw more moderate growth of 7% for a total of $372 million at its February...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The new Biden administration has bowed to pressure and re-imposed sanctions on Israeli diamond billionaire Dan Gertler.It reverses a decision by former President Trump, who unfroze his US assets barely a month ago, during his final days in office.......That move infuriated human rights groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who claim he looted the nation's mineral wealth...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Debmarine Namibia, the world's largest largest marine diamond mining company, has reported a 13 per cent drop in production.The company, a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, produced 1.125m carats as the global pandemic hit demand.Debmarine's existing fleet dredges thousands of tonnes of sediment from 150 meters below the seabed, 12 miles off Nami...Read More
(IDEX Online) - A suspect accused of stealing a suitcase containing $2.1m of jewelry from a trade fair in Russia has been extradited to stand trial.Colombian national Edgar Alejandro Valero is alleged to have stolen the suitcase from the pavilion of the Kazanskaya Yarmarka exhibition center (pictured), in Kazan, in July 2018.He was apprehended in Argentina in September 2019 and has now been extrad...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Demand at a series of rough tenders in Dubai was "extremely high", said Trans Atlantic Gem Sales DMCC (TAGS) as it sold the vast majority of 72,000 carats on offer.Total proceeds from 24 February to 3 March were down slightly from the January tender, which raised almost $60m from the sale of all 87,000 carats offered.TAGS said it presented gems from Southern Africa and Angola worth...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Diamond tech firm Sarine is to seek broader investment by listing its shares in Tel Aviv as well as Singapore.It's taking advantage of recent moves by both the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and The Singapore Exchange ("SGX") to allow dual listings.Israel-based Sarine Technologies has been listed on SGX since it went public in April 2005. It hopes to join the TASE (pictured) i...Read More
RAPAPORT... Gunderson's Jewelers, which owns four stores across the US midwest, has acquired JB Hudson Jewelers, a retailer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota."We look forward to adding a fifth store to our ever-growing family and serving the Twin Cities community," Gunderson's said Monday in a post on its Facebook page, referring to the Minneapolis and Saint Paul region. The company, founded by...Read More
RAPAPORT... The Chinese New Year of 2020 could not have come at a worse time for the jewelry industry. The spread of the coronavirus across China - and beyond - was suddenly becoming a major threat to public health. Stores shut, and consumers canceled their travel plans. Retailers reported heavy sales slumps. Diamond suppliers, especially in India, feared their Far East clients would miss pay...Read More
RAPAPORT... Pandora restarted business at a number of locations that had been on lockdown, amid strong sales growth in February.Approximately 25% of the Danish jeweler's retail network is currently closed due to a resurgence of coronavirus cases, compared to 30% in January, it said Tuesday. The company's sales rose 12% on an organic basis versus the same month of 2020, and increased 10% compared t...Read More
RAPAPORT... Israel's diamond exports improved in February amid steady jewelry demand in key retail markets and the opening of a trade channel with Dubai, according to government data.Polished shipments out of Israel jumped 24% year on year to $251.6 million for the month, with volume increasing 20% to 122,784 carats, the country's Ministry of Economy and Industry reported last week. Rough exp...Read More
RAPAPORT... Many jewelers rely on "tried and true" methods of advertising, blasting consumers with the ideal of a happy couple: A man spots a gorgeous woman across the room and can't take his eyes off her; their love grows, and he proposes with a beautiful, sparkling engagement ring. The idea behind this is to suggest that you, too, can have the romantic fairy tale if you shop with that jeweler. A...Read More
(IDEX Online) - The Biden administration is under pressure to re-impose sanctions on Israeli diamond billionaire Dan Gertler (pictured).He had his US assets frozen in 2017 amid allegations that he'd looted the Democratic Republic of Congo of its copper, cobalt and other mineral resources.Former President Trump quietly, and controversially, granted him a reprieve during his final days in offic...Read More
(IDEX Online) - Pink diamonds from the now-closed Argyle mine have been incorporated into new Jewelled Horse gold coins by Australia's state-owned Perth Mint.They are legal tender, with a face value of A$2,000, although it's highly unlikely any will actually be used as cash.They each have 2.76-carats of fancy intense vivid pink and purplish-pink Argyle diamonds and cost US$194,833....Read More