Laurelton Diamonds, an American diamond company, wants to lay off 26 workers or 60 per cent of the staff at its Antwerp division, Christian union ACV reports. The company’s management says this is necessary because demand for diamonds from China and the United States is declining. There is also strong competition from synthetic diamonds, which are much cheaper than natural diamonds.
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Big Antwerp diamond business plans to make over half its staff redundant
Colin Clapson
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About 40 people work at Laurelton Diamonds' branch in Antwerp's Diamond Quarter. The diamond company is part of the Tiffany and Co jewellery brand, which belongs to Louis Vuitton's luxury goods group. Here diamonds are sorted and graded.
‘For the workforce the news came as a bolt out of the blue,’ says Yves Toutenel of the Christian ACV union. ‘In 2018, the company closed its cutting plant in Antwerp. At that time, 20 staff were laid off. Laurelton now intends to make 18 blue-collar staff and eight white-collar workers redundant by the autumn.’ Talks are ongoing between management and the unions.
World demand falls, importance of synthetic diamond grows
As a reason for the restructuring, the company points to competition from cheaper synthetic diamonds. ‘In addition, demand from China and the United States for diamonds has dropped considerably. They are the biggest customers for Antwerp diamonds,’ says Mr Toutenel.
The unions are now involved in talks with the management and are making counter-proposals. ‘We want to prevent workers with a lot of experience from being made redundant. There are indications that the crisis in the diamond sector has bottomed out and that the market could rebound.’
‘The sector is going through a difficult period,’ adds the Antwerp alderman responsible for the diamond business, Johan Klaps. ‘The figures have been falling for some time. It’s an international trend. This once again shows that real action to support the sector is needed. We are working hard to achieve this. Of course, the city of Antwerp, has few powers to change anything with regard to the global trade in diamonds. The ban on Russian diamonds also exacerbates the problem.’
Investing in a quality label
‘We are in constant dialogue with the AWDC, the sector’s umbrella organisation and with the Flemish and federal governments to see how we can help. We are talking about innovation, promotion and our quality label. Quality is our trade name around the world. Anyone buying an Antwerp diamond knows that it has been checked, that it is ethical and not a blood diamond. We try to highlight this aspect as much as possible. Synthetic diamonds are a different product. A diamond from Antwerp is still something special,’ says the alderman.