|
|
De Beers Opens Signature Store in New York
Dec 12, 2016 10:37 AM
By Rapaport News
|
|
|
RAPAPORT...
De Beers Diamond Jewellers unveiled its flagship New York store, in which it features rough diamonds to give customers a better sense of
the finished product’s origin.
To mark the occasion, the jewelry retailer displayed a 109-carat, type-IIa rough diamond at the store, which covers 200 square meters on
Manhattan’s Madison Avenue.
“To have a beautiful polished diamond you have to start with
a beautiful rough,” said François Delage, chief executive officer of De Beers
Diamond Jewellers, in a TV interview with Bloomberg. “This is really where our
expertise lies, and we wanted our potential clients to be able to experience
what it is to touch and feel beautiful rough.”
De Beers has four jewelry
outlets in the U.S. including one inside the Saks Fifth
Avenue department store. It had a standalone store on Fifth Avenue since 2005
and moved to a temporary store on Madison Avenue in early 2016 before this launch of a permanent location.
“We felt it was the right moment for us to offer to our
client an experience which was more in line with what they were looking for –
something which is a bit more intimate, a bit more exclusive,” Delage added.
“We saw that the premises on Madison Avenue were probably more fitting with
what the brand was about and standing for.”
De Beers Diamond Jewellers, a London-based joint venture
between De Beers and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, reported revenue grew 3
percent to $161.3 million in 2015 as sales of high jewelry improved strongly. Apart from the U.S., the brand has two stores in Canada, seven
locations in Europe, three in the Middle East and 17 in Asia. Its business in
China – where it has five outlets – is “growing double-digit,” Delage said.
Correction: The store on Madison Avenue is not De Beers Diamond Jewellers' first standalone store in New York, as was previously reported.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tags:
De Beers, De Beers Diamond Jewellers, François Delage, LVMH, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Madison avenue, new york, Rapaport News, Saks Fifth Avenue
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|