Pandora to shift to selling lab-made diamonds only
Pandora aims to “transform” the diamond jewellery market with “affordable, sustainably created products”
Danish jewellery giant Pandora is to stop selling mined diamonds and instead will use only lab-created versions of the gems.
The company said it aims to “transform” the diamond jewellery market with “affordable, sustainably created products”.
Lab-created diamonds are the same as mined diamonds, it said, except that they are made in a laboratory rather than dug from underground. They have the same optical, thermal and physical characteristics.
CEO Alexander Lacik said of the lab diamonds: “They are as much a symbol of innovation and progress as they are of enduring beauty and stand as testament to our ongoing and ambitious sustainability agenda. Diamonds are not only forever but for everyone.”
Pandora, which has a consumer base in more than 100 countries, said growth in demand for lab-made diamonds was outpacing the growth of the overall diamond industry.
The stones will be sourced from suppliers in Europe and North America.
Any remaining mined diamonds left in its stores would still be sold, the company said.
Q1 growth
The announcement came as Pandora reported a better than expected rise in operating profit from 204m kroner (£24m, $33m, €27m) to 903m kroner for the first quarter.
Sales rose 8% to 4.5bn kroner (£5.2bn), led by online sales more than doubling.
Lacik said that it was a good start to the year considering 30% of its 2,700 global stores were shut due to the pandemic.
Last year Pandora made 85 million pieces of jewellery and sold 50,000 diamonds.
