The guessing game is over.
The Diamond Trading Company has published its first-ever list of sightholders, featuring 84 names and three industrial clients. The DTC also will highlight the names in a directory to be published later this year.
“[The sightholder list] includes a wide range of differing business models, including both large and small players, manufacturing and dealing-orientated businesses, companies that use a full range of diamonds, and those that are highly focused on specific goods,” said a DTC announcement that accompanied the list.
Before the “Supplier of Choice” selection process began, the list featured more than 100 names, and much of the DTC’s announcement was devoted to explaining why its roster was shorter by more than one-fifth.
It noted that the shortened list is “not surprising given DTC’s reducing share of the rough diamond market.” It added that being left off the list “is in no way a criticism of a client’s business, but is due, in almost all cases, to competition for limited supplies of particular goods.” De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer paid a personal tribute to those clients who were leaving the sight system: “Many of these companies have been clients of ours for a long time. We have each benefited from good commercial and personal relationships, and we continue to hold them in the highest esteem.”
But the announcement made it clear that De Beers holds the current sightholders in high esteem as well, saying “their skills include excellence in the craft of cutting and polishing diamonds as well as a proven expertise in marketing and distributing rough and polished diamonds. … What all these clients have in common is a commitment to driving demand for diamonds, a passion for protecting the integrity of our rare product, a shared vision regarding the future of our industry, and a track record of achievement.”
There are also three industrial clients on the sightholder list: Henri Polak Diamond Corp., Lieber and Solow Ltd., and Saint-Gobain Abrasives Limited – LM Van Moppes and Sons.