In 2015, the Government of India granted HRD Antwerp the duty-free in and export of diamonds for grading purposes. This in addition to a substantial organic growth, required HRD Antwerp India to expand its facilities. This way our customers will get faster services and we make sure our local research department has all the amenities it requires to stay on top of the latest industry developments. We were very honoured to welcome HE Minister-President of Flanders Mr. Geert Bourgeois at the inauguration of our new premises during his state visitto India earlier this year.
Q: Please share the details on the office expansion in India?
Ravi Chhabria: HRD Antwerp India already partners with a large number of international players and has exclusive tie-ups where we are the nominated grading lab for all their sourcing from India. We see a big potential as our existing customers are extremely satisfied as we do an independent quality check which gives them a high comfort while operating in a foreign country. HRD Antwerp India also supports other international markets worldwide by offering specific services from India
Q: What are the marketing strategy / business strategy adopted for M-Screen?
WTOCD, the Antwerp Research Centre for Diamonds, has developed the M-Screen which has been commercialized by HRD Antwerp. The mission of WTOCD is to assist the Belgian diamond sector, both the trade and industry, in increasing their competitiveness by making high-tech products and services available.
((Q: What is the USP of M-Screen, to beat the competition?
Ravi Chhabria: The M-Screen automatically feeds screens and sorts round brilliant diamonds at a super speed of minimum 2 diamonds per second. Depending on the size of the stones and the size of the batch, the speed can be as high as a staggering 10.800 diamonds per hour.
Q: There is difference in grading standards at the various labs. Do you see it lowering the confidence in diamonds and grading certificates?
Ravi Chhabria: How other diamond labs organise themselves or how they handle their grading standards is not up to us. HRD Antwerp’s stringent grading standards havehowever always remained consistent as they are fully compliant with the standards set by the International Diamond Council (IDC) which have been approved by the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB). It’s exactly this consistency in grading which has made us the most reliable lab today. We believe sticking to consistent independently set standardswill benefit the industry in the long run and significantly contributes towards growing consumer confidence. Our aim is to offer the most qualitative service with fast turnaround times without taking away the overall quality of our services and without compromising on our grading standards. In addition we are analysing feedback from our customers in order to serve them even better in the future.
Q: What are the challenges that the labs face today?
Ravi Chhabria: With science and technology advancing on a daily basis, undisclosed lab-grown diamonds diamonds remain an overall industry challenge. Not only for diamond grading labs in general but to the end consumer in particular. It is well known that an end-consumer’s trust is hard to obtain, yet easy to lose. HRD Antwerp is convinced that in order to increase consumer confidence, it is critical to assure full disclosure of lab-grown stones at all times. When a treated stone is submitted for grading in our lab under disclosed circumstances, we are able to issue a lab-grown diamond certificate.
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