De Beers may have launched a confident new marketing campaign this month, but the diamond business isn’t firing on all cylinders with its co-owner Anglo American having written down its value as revenues have fallen.
De Beers recently launched a new marketing campaign – DR
Hopes that the business — which is also co-owned by the government of Botswana — would be listed on the London Stock Exchange are also fading after Anglo American (which itself is listed in London and is a member of the elite FTSE 100 index) cut the value of its D Beers business.
It has reduced its stated value to £3.2 billion from £5.5 billion, the second writedown in two years. CEO Duncan Wanblad also said in a Bloomberg interview that a sale of De Beers was now more likely than a stock market listing. That comes as Anglo-American is focusing on its copper and iron ore businesses.
But its unclear how big the interest in De Beers will be given falling popularity for mined diamonds and a slump in Chinese consumer spending. That’s also reflected in Anglo American’s new rough diamond production guidance for the year of 20 million-23 million carats from 33 million carats.
So just how has De Beers performed? Within its own annual results for 2024, Anglo-American said De Beers production was lower last year, “reflecting a proactive response to a prolonged period of lower demand and higher than normal levels of inventory in the midstream”.
De Beers underlying EBITDA swung from a profit of $72 million in 2023 (the parent company reports in US dollars) to a loss of $25 million. De Beers’ revenue fell 23% year-on-year to $3.29 billion, mainly on the back of a 25% drop in rough diamond sales at $2.7 billion in 2024, down from $3.6 billion in 2023. Rough diamond volume sales fell 28%.
As mentioned, the rise of lab-grown diamonds has coincided with slumping demand from China, which was once the second-largest market globally for diamond jewellery. De Beers said that the diamond jewellery market fell by between 3% and 4% in 2024. And even in the world’s biggest diamond jewellery market – the US – demand dropped 2%, although the company also said that the lab-grown impact on the market could have peaked.
K-Pop’s global appeal continues to defy the ups and downs of the music business and its ongoing popularity means its stars remain in high demand for marketing campaigns, especially for fashion firms.
Yeji for Roger Vivier
Now Roger Vivier has announced Yeji as brand ambassador. The French luxury footwear and accessories company said that “as a leading figure in the K-pop world, Yeji embodies a bold and contemporary vision of style, perfectly aligning with the Maison’s heritage of elegance, creativity, and innovation”.
And it added that she’s “an icon for a new generation of fashion-forward individuals. Her influence extends far beyond music, shaping the cultural landscape and connecting with a dynamic global audience. With this partnership, Roger Vivier strengthens its ever-growing relationship with the world of K-pop, embracing its undeniable impact on contemporary fashion and luxury”.
The company stressed its “commitment to embracing a diverse and global vision of luxury” and said it looks forward to “showcasing this creative synergy through upcoming projects and exclusive collaborations”.
The label has drawn its ambassadors and campaign stars from a wide pool of celebrities around the world. Last summer, for instance, it announced Xin Zhilei as its latest brand ambassador, saying the award-winning Chinese actress will work with the company to “celebrate some of the brand’s most iconic creations”.
And just a few months earlier it unveiled American Academy Award winner Laura Dern — its “ambassador and friend of the House” — in its latest campaign, the first installation of the Vivier Express ‘Travelling Icons’ video series.
In line with the trend for upsizing stores, the brand has relocated its Regent Street flagship store to a larger space that opened on Friday, making it the label’s largest store in EMEA.
The new location is double the size of its predecessor (which was itself pretty big). It now covers 8,923 sq ft of retail space and will house Lululemon’s men’s and women’s clothing and accessories for yoga, running, training, and “everything in-between”.
Unique features of the space include its biggest pant wall in Europe, the largest Lululemon assortment of menswear in EMEA, elements of the brand’s newest store design concept, a water bottle personalisation station and a staircase light feature that changes tones depending on time of day.
The company said that as well as the straightforward process of selling product, the store “will be a hub for connection — building on the brand’s previous 11 years of community building in London”.
The opening week will feature a variety of activations, including a newsstand takeover where guests can access treats and grab a Lululemon newspaper, with all the details about the new store.
And the newsstand will also host DJ sets, and surprise performances from Lululemon ambassadors including Phil Wizard, Olympic gold medallist in Men’s Breaking.
Additionally, the brand will offer a series of community events, including movement sessions hosted at The Vinyl Factory Soho on Saturday, 1 March, followed by a disco-house dance party headlined by underground London DJs Don’t Fk With Disco. To kick off the week, Lululemon will also partner with the personalised running coach app Runna, for an event, inviting 400 guests to join an 8km run through London, starting from the new store.
Sarah Clark, senior VP of Lululemon EMEA, said: “Regent Street is one of the most important shopping destinations in the world, and 11 years after opening our first store in London we’re delighted to welcome our community to our newest flagship. Our guests will be able to discover our all-gender offering… across two incredible floors.
“Lululemon has seen significant International growth in recent years — we have ambitions to quadruple International sales from 2021-2026 — and this London flagship store will be a must-visit destination for both our local and international guests at an exciting time in our EMEA expansion.”
Meanwhile, on Thursday evening Saul Nash, Lululemon and Dazed celebrated ‘SLNSH’, a new collaboration between the London designer and the brand, launching globally on 11 March.
They took over The Boiler House in East London, “bringing to life the full SLNSH Spring 2025 collection through creative interventions across the venue, including wireframe mannequins, campaign projections, and bespoke lighting designs”.
SLNSH
SLNSH “merges Saul Nash’s elevated approach to activewear with the proven technical innovation of Lululemon to blur the lines between performance and lifestyle”. The collection features designs across men’s, women’s, and accessories.
Eightyards GmbH, the wholly-owned subsidiary that Hugo Boss announced late last year, has now officially started its business operations.
Markéta Miltenberger and Placido Klitzke – HUGO BOSS
Based in Metzingen, it enables the company (in which the UK’s Frasers Group is the second-largest shareholder) to repurpose its surplus materials into new use.
Eightyards focuses on three core business areas: reselling, reusing as well as re-, up- and downcycling of the group’s surplus textiles to customers in the fashion industry and beyond.
It’s run by two of the company’s former employees: director Markéta Miltenberger and co-director Placido Klitzke.
“The creation of Eightyards shows our great internal talents and their entrepreneurial spirit. I am excited to see the contribution that Eightyards will deliver to the circular economy,” said Hugo Boss CEO Daniel Grieder.
As well as reselling, Eightyards offers to transform unused fabrics into new products from clothing, to tote bags, shoe bags, etuis for pens, and pillowcases.
The new venture also has plans to extend its services to other material supply sources in the future.
The company has already started collaborating on first projects with customers from the fashion and telecoms sector with Hugo Boss saying the ambition over the coming years is to “establish the venture as one of the key global facilitators for the repurposing of surplus materials”.
Miltenberger said that as a subsidiary of the giant German business, “we have access to high-quality surplus materials which have been sourced under high ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) standards. This is an asset we want to leverage for our customers. Our aim is to drive cross-industry collaboration with partners beyond the fashion sector.”