Cutting Remarks

August 27, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Mike Parsell, CEO of Brisbane, Australia-based Michael Hill Jeweler, which is in the process of buying 17 stores from Whitehall, very generously took some time to speak with me while "in transit" last night. Highlights follow:

Why did you decide to purchase the stores from Whitehall?

There are some similarities in our models. The sizes of the stores, in terms of the actual area, are similar.  The product ranges are very similar. We have a little more of a diamond focus but the concepts are similar.

To get a concentration of 17 stores in one area [Illinois and Missouri] gives you a scale of economy.

Do you plan to b...Read More

August 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

And here's your weekly news ...


De Beers adds co-op money to holiday pool. 

DTC: Prices have risen 16%.

- Sight reports from Idex and Rapaport.

Welcome, Michael Hill!

- Australian comp...Read More

August 22, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Here is some good news ...

De Beers has committed to laying out some extra advertising money in the U.S. this holiday, although not for the standard generic promotions (though those will still be around.) The money will go to what spokeswoman Louise Prior calls “a special allocation of DTC co – op marketing funds.”

Here’s Louise:

This is not part of the wider De Beers generic marketing programme but is a demonstration of the DTC's ability to listen and respond to our Sightholders and work closely with them as leaders of the d...Read More

August 21, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (5)

When moissanite was first introduced, about ten years ago, I was among the skeptics. It was billed as a diamond-imitation, but it wasn’t as cheap as a cubic zirconia, and didn’t have the cache of being an actual diamond, like lab-grown diamonds. It wasn’t even a natural stone.

But moissanite surprised me, and many others. It reinvented itself as a fashion item aimed at female self-purchasers that didn’t rely on its resemblance to diamonds. In 2004, JC Penney picked it up, followed by big names like Helzberg's and Finlay, and ...Read More

August 19, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (5)

Someone alerted me to this interesting quote in a recent article in Botswanan newspaper Mmegi, from a man who was the former chairman of Debswana:

Tombale says the sightholders could be required to relocate their headquarters to Botswana and to mentor smaller, locally owned cutting and polishing companies.

I can't imagine many companies, who have been in places like India and Israel for generations, moving their headquarters to Botswana. 

I fully support beneficiation. Producing countries should get the most benefit out of their resources possible. But it is still an unproven concept. No one is really sure whether ...Read More