Out to Lunch - in Antwerp
With IceDiam
Gordon Hamme visited Laurel Delamater in the London Diamond Bourse & Club and her business partner David Gotlib in Belgium's Diamond Quarter.
I've known Laurel Delamater since she came to England and set up her diamond trading business in the London Diamond Bourse and Club in 2002. Laurel is a fully qualified GIA gemmologist who is trained in treatments and has taught gemmology for eight years as well as writing articles on gems and diamond mining. Laurel has gained a great reputation in the Bourse for honesty and integrity. Along with her new business partnership with IceDiam she has been achieving sales to major stores and dealers in London's West End. Laurel commented on recent trading, ‘Hatton Garden is quiet at the moment, although most traders didn't have a bad Xmas season. We are very lucky at the moment to have a number of big, good customers. So with the big City bonuses kicking in we have made sales of 5 to 6 carat diamonds in the £40,000 - £50,000 range.'
Laurel carries a large range certified diamonds with HRD, IGI and GIA certificates from 25 points upwards. Laurel prides herself on a large stock of certified rounds and fancy stones at very competitive prices. ‘We do sell a lot to other brokers, which is how I first started my business in London. At the moment there is great demand for larger stones but these stones just aren't to be found and in consequence the prices just keep going up.'
The following day I went to Antwerp by Eurostar the civilised, but bankrupt, way to travel to Europe. The IDRP, IceDiam offices are in the centre of the diamond quarter in Schupstraat. It's is difficult not to be impressed by the leather, steel and glass modern offices of this company. I met with David Gotlib who explained to me how his company works. ‘We buy a great deal of polished and rough diamonds from Russia.' His father, Marcel, had started buying diamonds under the communist regime in the 1970s. ‘Nowadays we are one of about 35 companies who are sightholders in Russia. We contract to purchase about 75% of our stock through the sight purchase. When we purchase through the Russian sight system we look at a cross-section of the stones we are buying and then receive a fixed-price contract which is paid for two weeks later after which we take delivery. These contracts are not really negotiable and in consequence we might only dispute the price once or twice each year.'
The company also buys through tender in Moscow. The tender system for purchasing Russian rough diamonds is more open with about 60 companies looking at the parcels being sold. David does normally buy at the tenders but he comments that most companies are not constant buyers. Further purchases of rough are made in Africa and Canada. I commented to David that the last time I had seen him at a trade show he had been to Moscow, New York and Antwerp in just the last three days. ‘Yes,' he smiled, ‘I'm often quite jet-lagged.'
The diamonds are sorted at the Antwerp IceDiam office where they are divided into sizes and colours. The stones are divided into sawables and makeables before being sent to the cutting centres in China and India. It is generally a 6-7 week turnaround before the stones come back before sending them to the certification houses, which may then take a further 2-3 weeks.
On the day that I visited IceDiam was receiving a consignment of cut and polished diamonds from Moscow. David explained, ‘We buy about 450 carats of polished stones and 55000 carats of rough diamonds every four weeks which our customers are fully aware of. We having people waiting in the office for the parcels to be opened and sorted. We are very fortunate that the Russians produce some of the finest made (proportioned) diamonds and they are generally of the highest quality colours and clarities in the world.'
Contact: Laurel Delameter GG
Tel: 020 7404 4022
