Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery maker by volume, said that young consumers were behind a boom in laboratory-grown diamonds that has led to a slump in sales of mined ones and helped the Danish group’s shares outperform luxury rivals.
Alexander Lacik, chief executive of the mass-market jeweller, told the Financial Times that lab-grown diamonds were opening up the sector to new consumers as they were typically one-third the price of the mined alternative.
“People are discovering that a diamond is a diamond. It’s a different value proposition, and people are voting with their wallets . . . Older customers are more wedded to mined diamonds. Younger ones are more open to lab-grown,” he added.