De Beers: Diamdel Restructuring Part of Effectiveness Drive

De Beers has officially confirmed the restructuring of Diamdel, as first reported by Chaim Even-Zohar and IDEX Online. The changes will include sales to the secondary market in Antwerp and India, while other branches will be either closed or scaled down, including the Israeli office, which was planned to be the central sorting center.

“Throughout our global operations, De Beers continues to focus on those resources and operations that best form part of our long-term future,” the company said on Monday. “As part of this drive to even greater operational and efficiency, and to better meet the challenges of the current diamond market, De Beers has concluded that it is necessary to restructure the Diamdel group of companies.”

Diamdel will continue to sell to non-Sightholders, principally through Diamdel NV in Antwerp and Hindustan Diamond Corporation (HDC) in India. All operations, with the exception of HDC, will be scaled back.

In South Africa Diamdel will cease trading, becoming the State Diamond Trader with De Beers providing the diamond skills and services and “affected staff will be seconded in an appropriate manner to this new entity.”

Regarding Namibia, De Beers only states it is expecting the Namibia Diamond Trading Company to “consider applications for supply from any diamond manufacturing operation in the country,” without providing any specifics about the local Diamdel office.

The diamond miner added that “Reshaping the De Beers Group is necessary to meet the challenges of being a world class diamond company in an evolving market place. The Diamdel restructuring is part of this transformation.”