The De Beers Group is best known for its illustrious history of diamond mining and trading. Founded in the late 1800s, it established for many decades a near-monopoly over the global diamond supply.
The firm’s Diamond Trading Company sorts through the stones and prepares them for “sights”, where they are sold. But the firm also engages in retail sales through its subsidiary De Beers Diamond Jewelers.
De Beers launched a joint retail venture with the French firm Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy in 2001 to sell diamond jewelry to the public. A year later, its first brick and mortar store was officially opened on Old Bond Street in London, England.
In the intervening years, De Beers has opened shops in the United States, France, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
