RE: Snooty/Quindell29 Aug 2017 12:34
You make a fair point there Richard, I think what you are referring to is the company will have the option open to their customers for a cutting and polishing service, but as we are producing over 1.2m carats of stones per quarter (although a large portion is for industrial use) we still won't be able to solely offer cut and polished stones due to the lengthly and costly (up front) process in doing so. With heating its cheaper, quicker and can be done in bulk as the crucible used in the heating process has a much larger carat capacity as apposed to individually cutting stones. The heating process is quite cheap and rapidly increases the value of our produce so for me this is far more viable. When it comes to special larger stones then yes the cutting and polishing will be worth it (although they are less likely to take up this option in my opinion). The point we need to hit home about our Sapphires is they are truly conflict free, are of good quality and have diverse colours, with the latter being especially important because I feel there is the lack of information on the consumers part, and lack of information ultimately leads to the lack of demand. Hopefully with the sightholder deals we made recently this will be addressed.