What is the history and background of debeers?

Question:

What is the history and background of debeers?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: The history of De Beers falls into three broad stages. In its early years, when the company produced over 90% of the world's diamonds, it was able to control the production and hence the supply of diamonds almost at will. Then, from the beginning of the 20th century, when rival producers began to challenge its pre-eminence, De Beers used its still-dominant position to co-ordinate and regulate the supply of diamonds in pursuit of price stability and consumer confidence. Finally, in the closing years of the last century, the globalising economy rendered De Beers' role of industry �custodian� inappropriate and expensive. In response De Beers set about crafting a new strategy for the 21st century: a suite of innovative programmes and alliances designed to reinvigorate the industry and to grow demand for diamond jewellery.

To 1860
Geological evidence suggests that the diamond story began some 3.3 billion years ago, when the first diamonds were formed deep under the Earth in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure... read more

1860-1880
In 1859, the first anecdotal reports emerged of the discovery of a diamond on the Vaal River in South Africa. But it was only in 1866 that the first authenticated discovery of a diamond on the African continent took place when Erasmus Jacobs found the Eureka (21.25 carats rough) on the banks of the Orange River... read more

1880-1900
The year 1880 saw the start of protracted battles for overall control of the diamond fields between Rhodes and peddler-turned-diamond magnate, Barney Barnato. In April, Rhodes and Rudd formed a company to amalgamate their holdings in the De Beers mine... read more

1900-1940
On the strength of its ownership of Consolidated Diamond Mines (CDM) in South West Africa (now Namibia), Anglo American Corporation was admitted to membership of the London Diamond Syndicate in 1924... read more

1940-1950
The wisdom of establishing single channel marketing, and the soundness of its principles were to be put to the test in no uncertain terms by the vast Mwadui Mine, discovered by Canadian geologist Dr John Williamson, in 1940. By the time the next great source of production - the Soviet Union - came into play, the CSO had demonstrated its mettle... read more

1950-1980
In 1952 De Beers formed the De Beers Investment Trust, to hold the significant portfolio of industrial, gold and related mineral, and agricultural interests that the company had built up to diversify its income streams. The following year saw ASEA produce the first synthetic diamond, but fail to take out the first patent rights... read more

1980-1990
The 1977 De Beers Chairman's Report drew attention to the dangers inherent in a speculative market in investment diamonds, pushing up the prices of rarer polished diamonds to huge premiums. These stones were particularly hard hit when the diamond market entered recession in 1981 with the collapse of the hard asset boom, and this brought about a crisis in the cutting centres of New York, Antwerp and Israel. The recession caused De Beers' sales to slump to almost half of their 1980 level, and the company cut its dividend in 1982 for the first time since 1944... read more

1990-1999
The 1990s dawned full of promise for a brighter future. In 1985 Julian Ogilvie Thompson had reported in his Chairman's Statement the "... restoration of normal, profitable trading in all sectors of the diamond industry"... read more

From 2000
By the close of the 1990s, it was clear that De Beers would have to rethink its business model. The decade had seen dramatic swings in the supply of diamonds, the world economy move onto a low inflationary path and a period of pricing pressure for the diamond industry. The proportion of world diamond output produced and sold by De Beers had also declined... read more

HFO Reflects
For over half its history, De Beers was guided and influenced by the remarkable Harry Oppenheimer - a director of De Beers for 60 years, and chairman for 27 of those. Harry died in Johannesburg on 19 August 2000 at the age of 92, after a short illness. He will be remembered for many outstanding contributions to the company and to the wider industry. Perhaps the greatest of these was that he was instrumental in initiating De Beers' now famous advertising effort. In one of the last interviews he gave - on his 91st birthday - he spoke about the diamond industry's past and its future... read more