De Beers to close lab-grown diamond brand, Lightbox
Diamond company De Beers Group has announced plans to shutter Lightbox, its lab-grown diamond (LGD) jewellery brand. The company confirmed the news in a press release, where it stated that it wished to instead reinforce its 'commitment to natural diamonds' and thus had entered into discussions with potential buyers for the sale of certain Lightbox assets.
Lightbox had initially set out a linear pricing of 800 dollars per carat. However, since its launch in 2018, the price of LGD's has fallen 90 percent at wholesale, De Beers said, aligning them more closely with a cost-plus model.
The company's CEO, Al Cook, further cited growing global competition in the LGD sector, particularly from China, where the process is low-cost. He added: 'In the US, supermarkets are driving down LGD jewellery prices. Overall, we expect both the cost and price of LGDs to fall further in the jewellery sector.'
As such, the group intends to follow through with what at first was a plan set out as part of its Origins Strategy 'to focus on high-return activities and streamline the business', initially introduced in its executional milestones published May 2024. Now, it is looking to reallocate investments into projects 'focused on reinvigorating desire for natural diamonds through category marketing'.
The move will make De Beers Group a standalone company, while its subsidiary, Element Six, will continue to oversee industrial solutions utilising synthetic diamonds. At its Oregon-based facility, the firm will work with select partners to accelerate technologies for high growth industries in this area, the group said, leveraging its 'track record of growth and profitability' to 'drive the future of synthetic diamond solutions' in certain applications.
Cook commented that De Beers would 'continue to optimise our business, reduce costs and build a focused De Beers that is positioned for profitable growth'. He added: 'The planned closure of Lightbox reflects our commitment to natural diamonds. We are also excited at the growing commercial potential for synthetic diamonds in the technology and industrial space.'
De Beers noted it would work with employees and retail partners to ensure a smooth transition of the process, while its customers will continue to receive support for existing purchases during this period.
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