Sales at Luk Fook slid in the third fiscal quarter as a slump in the Hong Kong market outweighed a recovery on the mainland.Group-wide same-store sales at branches open for at least a year fell 29% year on year during the three months ending December 31, the retailer reported last week..
RAPAPORT. Diamond jewelry is the most desired tangible luxury product among consumers under the age of 40, second only to vacations, according to a survey by the Natural Diamond Council (NDC).The majority of demographic groups picked vacations as the luxury item they would most want to buy.
RAPAPORT. Diamonds Do Good (DDG) has named Rebecca Foerster as its new president. She will succeed Anna Martin, who is departing after a four-year term.
Foerster, who is the president of Alrosa’s US operations, was elected to the position after having served on the DDG board for 10 years and on its executive committee for the past four years, the organization said last week.
“I am very confident Rebecca will continue the positive impact Diamonds Do Good has made for so many communities, and I look forward to working with her to encourage the industry to share these stories with their customers, as it is not only good for business, it is a responsibility for the entire industry,” Martin noted.
RAPAPORT. The American Gem Society’s (AGS) annual Conclave will return this year, with a live event in Dallas, Texas.
The event will take place from September 12 to 14 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel, AGS said last week. The event was originally set to run in Louisville, Kentucky, in April, but was postponed due to Covid-19. AGS scrapped the 2020 edition altogether.
AGS will feature peer-to-peer learning opportunities at the Conclave, along with several keynote speakers, whom it will announce at a later date, it noted.
Additionally, the society has launched Confluence, a new virtual event to take place April 26. AGS will offer industry professionals targeted learning based on their roles within the trade. The group will also give members access to its learning portal, added Katherine Bodoh, CEO of AGS and AGS Laboratories.
Rough-diamond prices at Petra Diamonds’ January tender rose 8% on a like-for-like basis, returning to levels seen before Covid-19, the miner said Tuesday.The tender included about 382,000 carats of rough mined during the first fiscal half that ended December 31. Those stones yielded $30.5.