Cut Diamonds

One year ago, Tiffany announced that its U.S. same-store sales fell by 31 percent in the April 2009 quarter. Many people wondered if this might mark the end of the jewelry business, at least as we had known it for decades.

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American consumers continued to loosen their purse strings in February, and jewelry demand strengthened. This is a continuation of the healthy spending trend which began during the 2009 holiday selling season. February is important for jewelers, since Valentine’s Day, the second largest selling event of the year, occurs during the month.

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Total sales for Borsheim’s, Helzberg and Ben Bridge, Berkshire Hathaway’s three retail jewelry holdings, fell by 12 percent in 2009 versus the prior year, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. 

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Russia’s diamond mining firm Alrosa expects to sell about $300 million worth of rough and cut diamonds in April, according to a company statement quoted by Interfax. The company is forecasting $2.314 billion in mine output and $3.3 billion in sales revenue in 2010.

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Lazare Kaplan International said on Wednesday that it has notified the Security and Exchange (SEC) that it will be late in filing its quarterly report. The diamond company said that it continues its efforts to resolve what it calls “material uncertainties.” It currently estimates net sales at approximately $28.9 million.

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Surging past expectations, U.S. retail sales continued to show signs of improvement as consumers hit the stores for seasonal home goods, furniture and apparel, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). March retail industry sales (which exclude automobiles, gas stations and restaurants) increased 5.7 percent year-over-year. 

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While a good management information system can provide detailed data about a jeweler’s sales by retail selling price, the segmentation of this data is arguably arbitrary.

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Alrosa’s 2009 sales dropped 13.7 percent to  63.85 billion rubles ($2.19 billion), however, the Russian diamond giant succeeded to increase annual profit by 49.2 percent to 2.35 billion rubles ($80.5 million) in 2009, from 1.574 billion rubles in 2008, according to an Interfax report.

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The Hong Kong International Jewellery Show closed Tuesday after a busy few days, an additional indication of a revival in the gem and jewelry industry after the Great Recession of 2008-09. Exhibitors at the show reported strong sales to Asian and American buyers.

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Charles & Colvard Ltd., the exclusive maker of diamond-like moissanite jewels, reported a net loss of $440,000 for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to a net loss of $1.3 million in equivalent period of 2008. The gem maker’s results indicate it’s still struggling, but declining losses show signs of improvement.

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