Last week, which was more like two and half days… Zale’s sales are up … Signet’s sales are up … And Pandora, whose sales were up when everyone else’s were down, has now gone the other way. Go figure … All below on this holiday edition of Diamond Shavings …
Signet sales, revenues strongly up.
– Rolex and Jared part ways.
Zale revenues soar, net loss drops.
– Wall Street Journal: Still “in precarious position.”
– BrandChannel: Ad campaign “not bad.”
Pandora sales, revenues down.
– Interim CEO plans to step down.
IDEX: U.S. jewelry demand “robust.”
– National Jeweler: Jewelers seeing “increased traffic” in stores.
– Centurion: Prestige jewelers had a strong year.
Consumers “less gloomy.”
– Despite the skeptics, “economy is improving.”
Who is pushing up diamond prices?
– Polished prices flat.
Chaim Even-Zohar’s piece on “The End of the Oppenheimer Dynasty.” Not behind paywall, and worth reading.
– Reuters speaks to Oppenheimer.
Debswana cuts 700 jobs.
Dubai: Number two in the diamond trade?
Edahn Golan: What will the U.S. do as Kimberley Process chair?
– State Dept. meets with trade: statement.
Rapaport to Trade: Stay away from Marange diamonds.
– De Beers Marange files missing.
– Zimbabwe mining minister wants more border control.
– Big talk about new Zimbabwe diamond find.
– Country scales back diamond revenue projections (to a still substantial $600 million).
Criminal complaint targets “blood diamonds” in Angola.
Regulators allow Canadian mine to move forward.
Depreciating rupee hitting Indian diamantaires.
Why Groupon and other “group deal” sites may have hit a wall.
– Small businesses like Facebook, hate Groupon.
Blue Nile offers LivingSocial deal. Basically, a $100 off coupon.
– Analyst: Blue Nile “seems like a long tearful river.”
– Company “at crossroads.”
Helzberg has success with personalized promo.
Ben Janowski: Will population explosion help jewelry industry?
– Avi Krawitz: “Diamonds and the global economy.”
America’s most-visited malls.
Wire fraud scheme targets jewelers.
W.B. David suit against De Beers appealed.
World Federation rejects South Korean bourse.
GIA launches 4C’s app.
AGS Lab touts short turnaround time.
Graff wants more Asian stores.
Damien Hirst “diamond skull” shown.
Diamonds help atomic research.
Great story on the “jeweler turned FBI agent.”
From the Blog:
Why Groupon and Other “Group Deal” Sites May Have Hit a Wall.
I hope everyone had a great holiday…
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