De Beers and LVMH to open London store
Luxury brands plan new retail outlet through joint venture
November 16 2002
Diamond giant De Beers Consolidated Mines and luxury goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton will open their first joint venture jewellery store in London before Christmas.
De Beers’s chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told Swiss newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft that upbeat diamond sales, which are outperforming the luxury goods market as a whole, had convinced the companies to move ahead with the opening through their joint venture, Rapids World
Oppenheimer said: “I am eager to see how well the store will do in Christmas business. In LVMH we have a partner with lots of retail experience.” He added that the global economic slump had actually been a boost for diamond sales “The economic situation did not look very different a year ago, but we had surprisingly good Christmas sales. For the first time in many years diamonds sold better than other luxury goods. Many Americans realised as a result of the terror attacks how fleeting life is. They sought something with eternal value and found it in diamonds.”
De Beers and LVMH plan a series of retail outlets in high profile location around the world over the next four to five years.
