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Shaftel Diamond Co. received a winner of distinction award at the Better Business Bureau Awards for Excellence this month in Houston, Texas. Shaftel Diamond Co. has been a member with the bureau since 2001.

The company’s vice president, Danny Shaftel (left side of the picture), said, “We believe in helping our clients through the process of such an important purchase, our unique approach leaves our clients with complete knowledge of the history, quality, and value of the jewelry they are investing in, it is an honor to be recognized for our efforts.”

Shaftel Diamond Co. was established in 1978 as a father and son wholesale operation and it expanded in 2003 to serve the public with its first jewelry store.

Lucara Diamond expects production from its Karowe diamond mine in Botswana to be available for sale in June.  Buyers may view  approximately 40,000 carats of ‎Karowe rough diamonds ahead of time in Gaborone during the first week of June, with an online ‎auction scheduled to take place on June 11. ‎

The mining company officially launched its production effort from Karowe this past week and it generated a lot of interest, according to Lucara’s president William Lamb. “Our focus will ‎remain on the ramp-up activities, which will culminate in sustainable operations at design ‎capacity by the end of the quarter and the first cash flow from Karowe.”

During its launch celebration, the company hosted P. H. K. Kedikelwe, Botswana’s Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, along with ‎other government officials, industry leaders and local diamantaires.

Atelier Leseine of Mountain View, California unveiled the new Perle Captive collection by designer Nathalie Leseine. Perle Captive incorporates lustrous hand-selected Tahitian cultured pearls, set in fine gold and accented by diamonds. With this collection, Leseine pays homage to the geometric angles of the Eiffel Tower in her native Paris.

Leseine’s love for classic forms from France, the U.S., the South Pacific and Asia was the base of inspiration for the new pieces as she weaves characteristic elements from the cultures into contemporary form with a particular focus on detail.

For the Perle Captive pearl and diamond ring, pictured, the designer used a single round Tahitian black pearl captured with a multifaceted polyhedron cage with diamond pave, rising from a gracefully arching setting in gold and palladium. The set of earrings encases a pearl within multifaceted polyhedrons with each cage suspended from a fall of links and all are accented with delicate diamond pavé.

Principal designer Geoffrey Good said, “In collaborating with Atelier Leseine for the Perle Captive collection, I was intrigued by the challenge of presenting pearls, so intrinsically feminine with their layers and relative softness, in an unusual manner. The term ‘unusual’ refers to both a desire to avoid the obvious and overused approaches found in most pearl jewelry, and to somehow integrate such an organic material with the structural minimalism I so favor. I’m very happy with the result.”

Pandora reported in an interim statement that its first-quarter revenue fell 18 percent year on year to $249 million (DKK 1.42 billion) and net profit plummeted 34 percent to $59 million (DKK 338 million). Nonetheless, the brand maintained its  gross margin level of 71.6 percent year on year. Sales in local currency fell 5.5 percent for the Americas, where Pandora sells a majority of its products. Sales in local currency from Europe fell 35.9 percent year on year and they dropped 22.3 percent across the Asia Pacific region.

During the first quarter, Pandora initiated an inventory balancing campaign for which it took back $60 million (DKK 340 million) worth of products from distributors and retailers, lowered prices on some items and introduced new collections to increase brand excitement. Inventory for distribution rose 13.9 percent year on year to $292 million (DKK 1.67 billion) in the period. Additionally, the brand opened 26 concept stores in the quarter, with key growth markets being Italy, France, Russia and Asia.

Pandora’s chief executive, Björn Gulden, explained that the brand’s re-invention strategy that was launched nine months ago is on track to manage costs and grow market share. ”Our operations developed as planned during the quarter. It is evident that we do have a number of short-term challenges, but I am encouraged to see that we have initiated actions to deal with all of them.

”I am also very happy to see how motivated and passionate our people are. They are all proud of being part of Pandora and are genuinely focused on continuing making Pandora a globally successful company,” Gulden said. ”We will achieve this by working hard on three things — understanding the consumer, improving our product offering and strengthening the sales-out.”

Gulden added that Pandora’s inventory balancing campaign is on target, but due to the way it affects  quarterly results, progress can be difficult to monitor. ”The most important fact is that we work together with our retailers, to make sure that the quality of their stock is improving. The fact that we have realigned the price architecture and product range and also reduced prices on several of our products is also assuring that we will have a larger offering in the commercial Pandora price points going forward.”