De Beers Group announces intention to close Lightbox
| ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | the walter white of this generation (walt jr.) | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | the walter white of this generation (walt jr.) | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | ,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,,..,..,.,,..,.,,. | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 | | ''"'''"''"' | 05/12/25 |
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Date: May 12th, 2025 3:01 AM Author: ''"'''"''"'
De Beers Group today announces its intention to close its lab-grown diamond (“LGD”) jewellery brand, Lightbox, reinforcing De Beers Group’s commitment to natural diamonds in the jewellery sector. As part of the closure process, De Beers Group is discussing the sale of certain assets, including inventory, with potential buyers.
Lightbox, which was established in 2018, has highlighted that LGDs are a distinct product from natural diamonds, with different attributes and different value. The business was launched with transparent linear pricing of $800 per carat. Since then, LGD prices in the jewellery sector have fallen 90% at wholesale, tracking closer to a cost-plus model as they have diverged from natural diamond prices. Reflecting this sharp price decline, De Beers Group intends to discontinue the Lightbox business.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723964&forum_id=2#48923159) |
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Date: May 12th, 2025 4:35 AM Author: the walter white of this generation (walt jr.)
Yes, this is completely obvious, but it spelled the beginning of the end for one of the world's most recognizable cartels (literally, 25 years ago, if you asked someone to name a legal global cartel, a plurality would name de beers... the company was founded by cecil rhodes and the rothschild family). Obviously they were never going to control LGDs the way they toiled and spent and swindled and killed to control the world's natural diamond supply, so they set out to portray LGDs as costume jewelry / kids toys -- which, again, there is a well-established way of judging diamond quality, and LGDs outperform naturals of the same size in every way.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723964&forum_id=2#48923191) |
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Date: May 12th, 2025 5:41 AM
Author: ,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,,..,..,.,,..,.,,.
their only hope is to completely flip around the desirability of 'perfection' in favor of hipster-style 'authenticity,' in which the gem is not cut at all, but is in fact still embedded in rock and other crap. a true mined diamond cannot be replicated in a lab because you'd need to somehow embed all the little chunks of silicate and feldspar and other shit into the diamond/junkstone interface.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723964&forum_id=2#48923202) |
Date: May 12th, 2025 12:38 PM Author: ''"'''"''"'
Now De Beers, which has cut its production and is set to go public in the next 12 months after its parent Anglo American put it up for sale, is sitting on a $2 billion stockpile of unsold diamonds. As part of its cost-cutting measures, the company confirmed this week that it would shut down Lightbox, a fashion jewelry label it introduced in 2018 to sell synthetic diamonds at a time when a synthetic price discount was only 10 percent of their natural counterparts.
The gambit was pitched as a bold experiment to show consumers the difference between natural and lab-grown diamonds, offering lower than market prices in a bid to protect De Beers’s core business. But did it work?
“Kind of,” Mr. Cook said. Lightbox, he said, was designed to sell man-made diamonds at value pegged to what it cost to make them rather than metrics like carat, cut, color and clarity that guide the price of natural stones. Because of declining manufacturing costs, however, the wholesale price of lab-grown stones has fallen by 90 percent since the unveiling of Lightbox, which he said highlighted that gulf even further.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5723964&forum_id=2#48924007) |
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