King Crown Staying Positive on 2013 Business Development Plan for China

Related: King Crown, Shanghai Diamonds Exchange

South African Diamond and jewelry brand King Crown established its presence in China with a local Chinese brand, "Hao Guan", in the beginning of 2012. Given its various sources of diamonds and color stones, it is committed to delivering high quality diamonds and jewelry to wealthy customers in China.

As many of the issues responsible for the challenging market in 2012 will continue ‎to have an impact, some people are concerned about the outlook for the diamonds industry in 2013, most notably, as economic uncertainty shifts from west to east and ‎back again. However, King Crown holds a positive view on its 2013 business development plan in China. The founder and managing director of King Crown , Hanchee Zheng, said, "The prospects for 2013 are encouraging, especially for the China market. Because a new government is ‎taking power, the outlook for China has improved significantly, after a slowdown in growth and ‎confidence in 2012. We are banking on a relatively strong Chinese New Year to ‎set a more positive tone for 2013." Hanchee also referred to the joke of Mike Roman , the late former chairman of Jewelers of America (JA), who said, "Don't worry about diamonds. The industry will be okay, as long as there are ‎three things: Christmas, sex and guilt."

"Our goals for 2013 are simple, but aggressive - and we need the right team to lead its execution," said Hanchee Zheng. "We have recruited several exceptional senior executives, and we are confident that they will lead our company and our sales channel to new levels."

King Crown recently stated that it has just established its import operation office in the Shanghai Diamonds Exchange (SDE), and has developed close partnerships with more than eight mainstream commercial banks in China. Meanwhile, King Crown has also formed partnerships with several influential online luxury retailers to distribute its various diamonds and jewelry products. The company added that it would introduce new designs into its direct sales channel beginning on Feb 1for the upcoming Chinese spring festival season.

King Crown sales rose 12.7 percent globally year on year for the week that ended December 29, according to data provided by its sales operation unit. On a month-to-month basis, comparable sales increased 7.9 percent due to last-minute Christmas shopping. King Crown anticipates that comparable sales in China will increase by between 300% and 500% in 2013.