10 Years Ago in Jeweller: July 2008

Diamond prices sky rocket

The story: Diamond prices surged again in May, breaking records set in prior months. On a year-over-year basis, diamond prices were up 12.3 per cent, according to the IDEX Online Polished Diamond Price Index.

Large, high-quality diamonds posted the biggest year on year price increases of 47 per cent, 64 per cent, and 77 per cent for three, four, and five carat diamonds respectively. According to an Idex Online report, the sharp increase in diamond prices is due to surging demand in many markets. 

Trade warned of imitation jade at conference

The story: Asia’s top jade authority has issued a warning to the jewellery trade about the need for better detection of imitation and treated jade in Australia. 

Speaking at the Gemmological Association of Australia’s (GAA) national conference in Coober Pedy, jade expert Tay Thye Sun focused his lecture on the identification and valuation of the increasing amount of treated and imitation jade creeping into the market.

With jade ranging in price from a few dollars to a few million dollars, Sun provided a strong warning to more than 60 delegates at the annual meeting of the GAA, this year entitled the Outback Super Conference. 

AGR Matthey in chaos?

The story: While the recent closure of AGR Matthey’s Perth and Brisbane offices has been blamed on the high price of gold, some industry people believe there could be other reasons contributing to the problem.

When announcing the closure of the two offices in May, outgoing CEO Andrew Strelein said, “With the higher gold price impacts we needed to do something about our cost structure and, unfortunately, we determined that the full branch network could no longer be afforded.”

But it would appear that new CEO John Sheppard has a number of more important issues to contend with. When Jeweller placed a call to AGR Matthey asking to speak to Sheppard about his appointment and his plans for the company, we were met with, “Who? Never heard of him.”

Kleins jewellery chain to close The story: Kleins, the 26-year old jewellery and accessories retail chain that went into administration last month owing more than $25 million, was set to close its operations in Australia in the final weeks of June (at the time of print). The business launched a closing-down sale on the weekend commencing Saturday June 14. Administrator James Stewart, of Ferrier Hodgson, said he was being forced to close the business because despite an extensive marketing campaign, no interested party was prepared to purchase the Kleins network as a whole, according to a release from the administrator. All of Kleins 35 company-owned stores and 130 franchised stores in Australia will be closed. It is expected that 100 Kleins employees will be made redundant. “Despite 46 expressions of interest and eight indicative offers being received, once parties proceeded to due diligence it was clear that no one was confident about returning to business to profitability considering the risks and financial commitment required,” Stewart said in the release. “It is very disappointing for staff and franchisees.”