Diamond Buying Office

A buying room – it is about the size of a large toilet or a small bathroom, and doubles as a dining room as we can see with Drena and Tony, the GM of the chain-store she works for, with the guy who heads the sales office of this company. They originally were Argyle Sightholders, and then became clients of BHP as well. So the diamonds we buy from them are Argyle champagne (now wholly owned by Rio Tinto) and Rio's DiaVik white diamonds and their new African mine (can't remember the name??). They track each diamonds origin, so we know if the stone is Canadian and from which mine etc. They have also subscribed to the Canada mark program with BHP Billiton and with Ekati Diamonds (where Aurias® came from).

Here we are in another suppliers office– there must have been about 3 or 4 kilos of diamonds in each bag. At 5,000 carats per kilo – that is a lot of diamonds. They are all very cheap TLB (TopLightBrown) small goods. This company produces about what is on the table each day!!!

Opera House Diamond District

The streets around the diamond market (opera house district) where all the brokers or couriers hang out – you can see one deal being done in the street in front of a 5 star restaurant. Yes it is diamonds, not drugs. There is also a shot of some after market wiring in an adjoining building.

Indian Jewelry Stores

A jewelry counter in a department store – just like a cosmetics counter in a regular department store – there were 7 brands with a showcase or 2 each and 14 staff – 2 for each company. They were not happy about us taking the photo. Not a lot of business going on. The jewels are all on consignment and the staff are employed by the jewellery manufacturer.

The manufacturers are all diamond companies – as the companies have grown, they have opened jewellery manufacturing divisions. Many are set up in the SEEPZ district near the airport; this is a duty free zone and the latest tools and equipment are used in state of the art factories. Most budget priced US jewellery comes from here (although China is growing too). Naturally many of these companies would like to establish a brand presence here in India for their own prestige and as part of the requirements of De Beers, Rio and BHP – that they establish downstream markets and alliances rather than the earlier practice of selling their polished goods on open bourses in Antwerp etc. Sales on a bourse are like shares – buyers and sellers work through brokers and never know each other; this means there can be no value adding by manufacturers finding out their customers specific requirements and fulfilling them. But from what we have seen so far the Indian 'branding' is a copy cat business model leaves a lot to be desired. The sales people are nice kids, but have no idea about jewellery or how to sell. The styles are all almost identical – no company seems to be prepared to differentiate themselves – but then I guess that is the Asian way.