Lab Grown Tech Drives Sarine's Recovery
August 14, 24
(IDEX Online) - Sarine, the diamond technology company, reported a $1m profit for the first half of 2024 despite "challenging" market conditions - after a loss in F2023.
It said sales of traditional capital equipment were down 37 per cent in the six months to 30 June, due to "less than favourable conditions for natural diamond manufacturing".
But this was offset by an 11% increase in recurring fees paid to use existing hardware, which accounts for over 70 per cent of the company's overall revenues.
Much of that growth was down to the newly-launched Most Valuable Plan for small, natural rough diamonds, and the adaptation of its rough planning technologies for lab growns, which had exceeded expectations.
Sarine also said it had benefitted from cutting costs, the opening of a GCAL by Sarine lab in India (mostly for lab growns) principally to service the significant Indian LGD industry, and the launch of technology to address ESG concerns and G7 sanctions on Russian diamonds.
The company's net profit rose 7.2 per cent to $1.02m in H1 2024. In 2023 it recorded a $2.8m loss, following on from an $8.8m profit in 2022.
Sarine, based in Israel, noted that hostilities by the Hamas and Hezbollah terror organizations had so far had minimal impact on its activities, but some younger employees had been called up for reservist duty.