Pandora Lifts Outlook as Jeweller Pushes Lab-Grown Diamonds

Full-year gross sales ought to enhance as a lot as 5 p.c, the corporate stated Tuesday, reporting second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. The inventory rose as a lot as 3.7 p.c.

Pandora will begin promoting artificial diamonds in Mexico, Brazil and Australia later this yr, the corporate stated. Pandora already sells them within the US, the UK and Canada, with value tags going as excessive as $4,450 for a 2-carat artificial diamond ring.

The jeweller dropped pure diamonds in 2021 after reviews of human rights abuses at mines and factories and as a consequence of their excessive carbon footprint. With a beginning value of $290, the lab-made stones are considerably cheaper, matching the corporate’s concentrate on reasonably priced jewelry.

Development prospects are additionally higher. The $6.6 billion international marketplace for lab-made diamond jewelry is ready to develop 8.4 p.c a yr, quicker than the 5.6 p.c annual development within the mined-diamond market, in response to a 2021 report by Stats & Analysis. Nonetheless, the dimensions of the artificial diamond market is barely a fraction as huge.

Demand for artificial diamond jewelry has been excessive, in response to Pandora, which sells extra items of jewelry than some other firm on the earth. Whereas lab-made stones accounted for lower than 1 p.c of income within the first half, it was Pandora’s fastest-growing section, regardless of their restricted distribution.

The present assortment can solely be purchased within the UK, US and Canada. First-half gross sales of the merchandise reached 66 million kroner ($10 million).

Pandora makes use of renewable power to supply the artificial diamonds, leading to a carbon footprint about one-twentieth of a similar-size mined gem. Pandora is setting the lab-grown stones in items utilizing recycled silver and gold.

The brand new collections might be obtainable in 700 shops on the finish of the month, in markets together with Australia. Pandora will begin promoting some collections in Mexico and Brazil in October, with a full rollout in these markets at the beginning of subsequent yr.

“Now we have huge ambitions for this class,” Chief Govt Officer Alexander Lacik stated in an announcement.

Actual diamonds have been by no means an enormous a part of Pandora’s enterprise. Earlier than it banned mined stones, it bought about 50,000 items of diamond jewellery a yr, in contrast with its annual whole of some 100 million items.

By Christian Wienberg