De Beers Names Five New Sightholders For Rest of 2012–2015 SoC Period

(IDEX Online News) – De Beers said five new Sightholders have been appointed for the remainder of the 2012–2015 Supplier of Choice (SoC) contract period.

De Beers’ modified SoC re-planning process, announced in 2011, enables non-Sightholder businesses that have demonstrated sufficient demand through De Beers’ auction sales in 2013 to qualify for Sightholder status and term contract supply subject to availability.

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 been subject to the same rigorous and objective selection process as those applicants that applied for supply at the start of the 2012–2015 contract period in 2011.

Additionally, all applicants are required to adhere to the De Beers Best Practice Principles, ensuring that Sightholders are “living up to diamonds” by adopting strict ethical standards in their business practices.

In addition to the qualification of new Sightholders, the ITO re-planning process also provides 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.”

De Beers added: "The 2014–2015 ITO period is the last in the current contract period. 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. The new contract will involve a simplified allocation process and even more rigorous financial compliance criteria. The dynamic ITO re-planning approach will remain in the new contract, continuing to provide De Beers with a highly efficient and responsive distribution system."