De Beers expects to have fewer sightholders going forward, and it will work closer with them on polished sales, CEO Al Cook told diamond industry analyst Edahn Golan in an interview at the Facets 2024 conference, which began today in Antwerp.

The company currently has 69 sightholders, but “we want to move from quantity to quality,” said Cook.

“We would like to have fewer sightholders that we have deeper relationships with,” he said.

Cook said De Beers plans to sign new contracts with its sightholders in 2026—and they will include new “partnerships” to sell polished.

“We are working with our sightholders to evolve our rough diamond sales into polished diamond sales,” he said. “We are looking at what kind of polished partnerships we can put together.… In addition to the way we’ve been selling rough diamonds for decades, [we want to see] what we can do to get the premium that we believe diamonds from countries like Botswana deserve.”

But that doesn’t mean De Beers will supplant its sightholders, Cook noted.

“We are really great at working with producer countries, mining, marketing, and working with retailers,” he said. “We believe there are many companies that are better at cutting and polishing than we are.… We will be seeking to work in partnership. The new polished division will be built on partnership.”

Earlier this year, De Beers appointed Mahiar Borhanjoo, a former De Beers sales director, as chief commercial officer, with a mandate to build a polished sales division.

Cook pointed out that De Beers has been moving away from marketing its own brands (such as De Beers Jewelers and Forevermark) in favor of “generic” campaigns for natural diamonds, like “Worth the Wait,” its collaboration with Signet, and “Forever Present,”  which is aimed at independent jewelers.

“We are doing category marketing…in a way that I don’t think we have really done since 2010,” Cook said. “Demand needs to come ahead of supply. There’s no point in producing something that isn’t required…. We should never take demand for granted.”

He said that while he’s seen a number of good indicators for the U.S holiday season, it’s too early to tell if the new campaigns have had an impact.

“[The industry has] benefited from a half-century of marketing efforts, from 1939 to 2010,” said Cook. “And I think as an industry—and I include De Beers in this—we have taken that for granted too much. We haven’t built enough on the shoulders of our forefathers.

“If it took 50, 60 years to build that desire for diamonds, through those marketing campaigns, I don’t think that six to 12 months of marketing will make up for a decade of lost opportunity,” he added. “We have to do this for the long term.”

Cook called on the rest of the industry to help reinvigorate demand for mined gems.

“We need everyone to step up, to play their role, in marketing natural diamonds,” he said. “It’s not enough for De Beers and Botswana to lead. Right now you can make margins in a lot of different ways. But we all know the health of our business in the long term is built on natural diamonds.”

Also speaking at the Facets conference was Botswana’s new president, Duma Boko, who said negotiations for a new contract with De Beers are “nearing completion.

“For Botswana…diamonds are the lifeblood of our economy,” Boko said. “By choosing Botswana diamonds, you are not just choosing a product. You are part of a movement toward sustainable and economic development.”

The annual conference, which concludes tomorrow, is organized by Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

Top: Al Cook, left, talks with Edahn Golan at Facets 2024. (Photo courtesy of Antwerp World Diamond Centre)

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