De Beers launched its retail activities in Hong Kong, with its first luxury retail store at an elite shopping mall in the Central part of Hong Kong. Following this, De Beers has outlined to increase the number of stores during the year, and build Hong Kong into one of its top five retail markets, globally.

The new facility is built over an area of 2,200-sq-ft, meant to display both high-end and “accessible” jewellery. The second store will open later in the year, while De Beers has identified to open another store at a major hotel-casino development in Macau, sooner.

According to the company, its diamonds priced between $500 to several million US dollars holds a great demand in Hong Kong. Reports say that the continuous opening of stores by De Beers is its strategy to mark its presence in the Chinese market. De Beers currently has strength of 23 retail outlets across the world, and will increase numbers to 49 by end-2008.