De Beers Diamond Jewellers, the mining company’s retail chain, recently opened a store in Hong Kong, at the Harbour City shopping mall in Kowloon.
The 1,000-square-foot store is the retailer’s fourth in the city.
In a statement, De Beers Diamond Jewellers CEO François Delage said the new store “reinforces our existing network in Greater China.
“It is important to us to continue to develop our brand presence in the region,” he added.
The new Hong Kong store brings the retail chain’s number of stores to 34. In April, De Beers announced that it was opening a store in Moscow, as well as its first store in Saudi Arabia, in the country’s capital city of Riyadh.
The store opening in Hong Kong shows that the De Beers retail brand is increasingly focused on Asia. Last year, De Beers CEO Bruce Cleaver told JCK that the brand was “very powerful in China.”
“Heritage brands are powerful in China, they are trusted,” he said. “So there’s big opportunity there.”
The brand is unlikely to expand further in the United States, Cleaver said in the interview. While the retail chain once had close to a dozen stores in the United States, it has since significantly trimmed back its U.S. fleet, though it still retains stores in Naples, Fla.; Houston; and on Madison Avenue in New York City. It also has a boutique in the flagship Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City .
De Beers Diamond Jewellers, meant to take advantage of the high awareness of the name De Beers, was launched in 2001 as a joint venture between De Beers and luxury giant LVHM. Last year De Beers bought out LVMH, and it now has full ownership of the retail chain.
Top: The new De Beers retail store in Hong Kong (image courtesy of De Beers Diamond Jewellers)
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