Pandora, the Danish jewelry company, plans to expand its lab-grown diamonds product line after customers said they liked the concept but wanted more options, its CEO said on Thursday.

Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry manufacturer in terms of production capacity, launched its lab-made diamonds collection in August across 269 stores in the United States and Canada, as well as online, following a smaller pilot launch in the United Kingdom in 2021.

The move came after the company decided to stop selling mined diamonds.

According to CEO Alexander Lacik, the group currently offers approximately 1,200 design variations (DVs), of which only 37 are lab-created diamond products.

“We have plenty of customers coming in and saying:‘I’m interested in the concept, I think the price is OK but I don’t like that particular design’,” he told Reuters.

“So the next step from here is going to be to provide a broader assortment,” he said in an interview, pointing to a range that over time would be ten times its current size.

The collection of lab-grown diamonds will be expanded geographically in 2023, though Lacik declined to say which countries would be next due to commercial sensitivity.

“When we play the charms and bracelet segment, I’m the 800-pound gorilla, I decide the rules…When I stick my head into diamonds, I’m the gold fish in the pool of sharks, so I’m not going to give them any heads-up on when I turn up,” he said.

According to Lacik, the global jewelry market is worth approximately $250 billion, with diamonds accounting for approximately $90 billion.

“Many of the customers that come to Pandora today, they are not part of that $90 billion because they simply cannot afford a mined diamond proposition,” he said.

“The real big gain here is actually to expand the jewellery market by democratising the jewellery space.”

Pandora reported a 7% increase in 2022 sales but forecasted a 3% drop to 3% increase this year, citing uncertainty about economic growth and its impact on consumer demand.

This year, the company’s stock has risen 34%.

(Adapted from FinanceDigest.com)