Better (a little) late than never ...

I started this blog in January of this year, thinking I would get to redesign and open my website fairly soon thereafter, and tie it all together. Funny how life, work and family stretch things out.

Just today the site is open (http://www.janosconsultants.com/) and I think it has been tweaked enough. So on to starting a dialogue about our industry, with all your help.

Comments

Diamond headaches today, a different world tomorrow

The diamond business still cannot seem to get weaned off mama De Beers. That is not in the way of a complaint to De Beers, but rather an admission that clinging to the old, sheltered ways is gone. And most of the trade refuses to admit it. Even the Oppenheimers knew it was time to move on. Sure, a $30 million auction sale is made. And other big stones are fought over. But something is wrong at the core of the business. There are big bankruptcies in Antwerp and Mumbai. Banks are backing off financing the trade, except for financing solid receivables. Government authorities are investigating diamond companies in Belgium and India. De Beers sights are being rejected for lack of money. Boxes are being sold at discounts - sightholders prefer to take a loss rather than try and convert the goods and lose even more money. Cutting factories have sharply reduced output, especially on small goods. And everywhere we hear tha...

The New De Beers

This past week we saw De Beers introduce Lightbox Jewelry, a full-bore, direct to consumer (DTC) retailer that will exclusively use man-made diamonds (MMDs) produced by their Element 6 division. The concept is neatly packaged to offer a basic selection of body jewelry at moderate prices. The DTC approach is intended to circumvent the entire traditional channels of distribution established by De Beers over the last century, in an effort to demonstrate that this is just a low-end, low-value product aimed at an under-served public. De Beers claims that it will only benefit its existing clients by demonstrating how much more valuable "real" diamonds are. This move cam as no surprise at all to me. There are many gaps and holes in this plan, and I will try to outline them in future blog posts. To begin with, I posted three times in 2015 with my views on the subject. Here are the links to those blog posts, as it would save me time repeating the points I made back...

Where is retail headed?

Nobody knows for sure. Present trends show that retailers of all sorts are working hard to adapt to a marketplace that is shifting dramatically. Jewelry retailers are not exempt from this paradigm shift, but their issues are not quite the same as for other retailers, and that holds true for most of their suppliers. Stated quickly, what are the specific issues confronting traditional jewelry retailers? The low end of the market continues to move steadily towards Internet retailers. The low end of any store's business is the traffic builder, and important opportunities to build long term relationships. The low end of the market, now significantly composed of non-precious materials, is appearing in many non-jewelry environments, further diluting the business. The mid-market has been suffering for decades now, but will still serve a substantial part of the public. It is increasingly owned by larger chains, but faces daunting prospects due to buyer burnout, a very m...

GemThoughts

Search This Blog