Leo Schachter Diamonds has opened a manufacturing facility in Pingsha, China, 90 minutes from Macao. The move allows the company to improve its competitive edge by consolidating its large-scale cutting and polishing operations in a country with low-cost production, the company said in a statement.

“The China center complements our existing manufacturing capabilities in India,” says Tannenbaum, Senior Partner Elliot. “With a vastly higher capacity for production, we can shorten our time to market even more and pass along additional cost benefits to our customers.”

The 57,500 sq.-ft. facility in mainland China has the capacity to employ and house 800 workers and includes gardens, an indoor recreation center, outdoor basketball court, and a grocery store. It is currently staffed with 500 employees—diamond polishers and cutters–who were trained and certified over the past 18 months by local managers, with oversight from the company’s master artisans in Israel.

Tannenbaum says the facility will produce stones from 70 points to ten cts, with a yield of I2 or better quality. The output at the facility is estimated at 350,000 cts. per year.

JCK