De Beers announces five new Sightholders for remaining 2012–2015 SoC contract period

The De Beers Group of Companies has added five new Sightholders for the remainder of the 2012–2015 Supplier of Choice (SoC) contract period.

De Beers had announced a modified SoC re-planning process, in 2011, in which non-Sightholder businesses that have demonstrated sufficient demand through De Beers’ auction sales in 2013 can qualify for Sightholder status and term contract supply (subject to availability). The Sightholder status in the current contract period is subject to De Beers’ forecast rough diamond availability and eligible applicants’ submission of a Contract Proposal Questionnaire (CPQ) as part of the 2014 Intention to Offer (ITO) re-planning process. Each applicant for a SoC contract under the 2014 ITO re-planning process has undergone the same selection process as those applicants who applied for supply at the start of the 2012–2015 contract period in 2011. Also, all applicants are required to adhere to the De Beers Best Practice Principles, ensuring that Sightholders are “living up to diamonds”.

The ITO re-planning process also provided opportunities for existing Sightholders to qualify for new rough diamond allocations as part of their 2014–2015 ITOs. The new allocations are subject to forecast availability and reflect Sightholders’ demonstrated requirements for rough diamond categories outside of their 2013–2014 ITOs.

Paul Rowley, Executive Vice President, Global Sightholder Sales, said: “Each of our new Sightholders has demonstrated consistently strong requirements for De Beers rough diamonds via their auction purchases and we look forward to working with each of them more closely. Our aim is to get the right diamonds into the right hands at the right time and our dynamic distribution system gives us the ideal vehicle to do this.”

The current contract period will culminate with the 2014–2015 ITO period after which a new De Beers Sightholder contract will start on 31st March 2015. Applications for the new contract will open in the third quarter of 2014, with a simplified allocation process and even more rigorous financial compliance criteria. It will include the ITO re-planning approach.