In a presentation, senior executives from De Beers including Gareth Penny -Managing Director of De Beers Group, Varda Shine - Managing Director of Diamond Trading Company and David Lamb - Chief Strategic Officer of Forevermark, elucidated the strong long-term fundamentals of the diamond industry, and the company’s strategy for maintaining diamonds’ market share of discretionary spend during the current global economic crisis. The presentations highlighted the strategies on production, sales and marketing during the downturn. %% Varda Shine outlined a 6-point action plan to ensure DTC maintains its competitive advantage for its Sightholders: DTC Sightholders carefully look at their box mixtures and scheduling; as DTC has received a highly focussed set of applications from clients, consequently, the next two Sights would be smaller, with DTC prices reflecting sustainable polished outcome from the rough, and this could continue into Q1 2009 as per client needs; DTC is considering ways in which Sightholders' prevailing purchase levels can be factored into next year's ITO; DTC is encouraging clients to demonstrate leadership behaviour in tough times, which will reap benefits when times improve and De Beers will show leadership in supporting consumer demand. %% On the consumer front, David Lamb announced a doubling of the US marketing budget during the Christmas buying period, in response to new, independent research which indicated: Diamond jewellery is the number one gifting choice for the holidays in 2008, 62 percent of women respondents prefer one diamond to several small gifts, 80 percent of the male respondents believed the diamond was the perfect expression of love, 66 percent women felt it is wonderful to hand jewellery down to the next generation and diamond jewellery was appreciated as an everyday wear accessory today. “The research has demonstrated that, in tough times, consumers gravitate towards quality. They buy fewer, but better things – things that last, which are not disposable and which hold their value. People will still get married and will still celebrate important events with diamonds” said Lamb. %% David unveiled new print and broadcasting advertising to the Sightholders, capturing the move toward fewer, better things, which will be released in the US during Christmas. %% Gareth Penny reminded Sightholders of the fundamentals of the business - diamonds are becoming increasingly rare and known diamond reserves are at an all time low. By the end of next decade diamond production is forecast to be below current levels. Medium to long term demand will outstrip availability, particularly with the expected growth in demand from emerging economies. “The confidence that De Beers has in the long term success of the industry is further demonstrated by the opening earlier this week of the Voorspoed mine in South Africa which will provide a new source of diamonds well into the next decade. I’d rather be in diamonds than just about any other I can possibly think of Penny concluded. %% Summarising the outlook of the current situation, some key notes came forth such that the medium and long-term fundamentals of the diamond industry are strong, new research studies indicate that consumers select quality products, although few in number, during uncertain economic times. Also De Beers’ confidence in the future of the industry given the increasing rarity of diamonds and its promise of enduring value and of being fully prepared to reduce production to reflect the prevailing level of demand for new rough diamond supply from its clients.