New diamond factory opens in Gaborone
A leading manufacturer, exporter andretailer of diamonds in the world - M Suresh Group – recently opened a factory in Gaborone.
Officiating at the ceremony, Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Eric Molale said that diamond beneficiation has become a central part of doing business and is fundamental to relationships that the country forms as “we continue to grow as a nation”.
With the opening of the factory M Suresh, which began operations in Botswana in 2016, now employs up to 148 people, with a total of 110 being Batswana. The group has been in existence since 1968.
Its placement in Botswana is timely as it becomes an avenue for skills exploration and creation of employment while placing Botswana as one of the many diamond hubs to date. Molale said that beneficiation is part of the agreement in involving and inviting the manufacturing industry to the local scene. “Moving activities such as cutting and polishing rough diamonds to Botswana creates economic diversification during the life of the country’s mines, through expanding employment opportunities and bringing new sources of revenue. May it trickle down to the people of Botswana and translate to good standards of living,” Molale emphasised.
Lalit Adani, Chief executive of M Suresh Company Private Limited shared that as a well-established and leading diamond and jewellery manufacturer, exporter, retailer and rough diamond trader, their intention is to add value through beneficiation in the local diamond industry. “We are committed to playing our role in helping achieve these ambitions. Botswana’s success is our success; that is why achieving sustained beneficiation targets, is as much a key strategic priority for us, as it is for government.” The company is headquartered in Mumbai (India) and is one of the largest manufacturing DTC Sightholders in India and Botswana.
Adani indicated that they operate with a strong execution driven vision, deep product knowledge, state-of-the art diamond and jewellery manufacturing units and an experienced management team. “We hope to transfer skills and partake in social development while we take Botswana to greater heights.” M Suresh have a significant presence in terms of offices in the major diamond trading centres across the globe - USA, Belgium, India, Middle East, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, Israel and Botswana respectively. In 2015 the cutting and polishing segment declined because the slowdown in global diamond jewellery demand increased retailers’ inventories. The combined midstream market share of India and China grew to roughly 90 percent due to their midstream segments’ low-cost structures. In addition to regular production, in late 2015 midstream unloaded about $5 billion of inventory accumulated in 2013 and 2014 into downstream markets. Combined with the demand slowdown the move contributed to a decline in polished-stone prices of about 10 percent in 2015
“It is around the same time, a very tough period in the diamond industry, when M Suresh Group approached us in Botswana to start business,” Paul Rowley Executive Vice President of Global Sightholder Sales at De Beers recalled.
“Without a doubt they saw something that we all did not see at the time and it goes a long way as presently the diamond industry is picking up with them ready to play, and we are excited to have them on board,” Rowley said. M Suresh has five state-of-the-art diamond manufacturing facilities located in Surat (3), Johannesburg (1) and Gaborone (1) with a total manufacturing capacity of 800, 000.00 Cts rough per annum and employing approximately 3000. In their list of achievements, M Suresh Group has added new dimension of diamond jewellery by endorsements through world famous and luxury brands such as: Adora Jewels, Swaranjali, Amaris, Zamels and Mazzucchelli’s, Vera Wang, India Hicks just to mention a few.