First diamond jewellery plant to open

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Friday November 5, 2010 00:00

In an interview with Business Week, General Manager Kim Lanny said in Gaborone that the P30 million jewellery manufacturing operation at the Diamond Technology Park 'will open later this month,' first producing jewelleries for the United States of America (US) market and later for the Southern African region.

'From the 16 DTC Sightholders, Shrenuj Botswana was the last company to start working in Botswana. However, it has become the first to expand through the diamond pipeline (Diamond manufacturing to fully-made jewellery). We are proud of it and I believe it shows our strong commitment to Botswana.

'Later on this month, we will also start a small retail operation where we will be selling our different brands through one local jewellery retail company,' said Lanny.

In a second quarter sales update to shareholders last week, Shreyas Doshi, chairman and managing director of Shrenuj and Company group, said that diamond manufacturing operations in Botswana have achieved the desired output and that the company is hiring additional manpower to support its growth in production.

'Our manufacturing operations in a producing country have remained a key strategic focus for us and we are now fully leveraging the opportunities available there,' Doshi said. According to Lanny, Shrenuj Botswana currently employs 175 workers at the diamond unit and hope to employ a total of 200 employees following satisfactory results on ground.

'We are planning to employ 100 people during 2011, so all in all we will employ about 300 people in both diamond and jewellery units. The jewellery factory will be under 'Shrenuj Botswana' as a division ('Jewellery division') in addition to the 'Diamond division' operating in Block 3.

' In addition, we have purchased another big piece of land in Block 3, Gaborone which we are planning to develop during 2011 as we expand our diamond and jewellery business,' he added. Shrenuj Botswana was appointed a DTCB Sightholder last July after the collapse of DDA Botswana. The company took over DDA's premises, fast-tracked the upgrading and expansion of operations before taking its first supply from DTCB in August of the same year. In the current factory, the company says they have invested approximately US$4 million (P27.5 million), which includes the purchase price from DDA and further investment in technology.

Shrenuj & Company Limited is an integrated gem and jewellery conglomerate having presence in 15 countries with activities ranging from diamond processing, jewellery manufacturing to branding and retailing. It employs over 2, 500 people in its worldwide operations. Shrenuj Group has diamond manufacturing facilities in India, Botswana and Israel specialising in processing high quality diamonds in larger sizes. Shrenuj has developed many international diamond jewellery brands, such as Arisia, Sveni and Bhavya (India and Middle East), Valina and Caro 74 (US), Fiana (France), Scintilla88 and MasterCut (Australia), and Amante88 (Hong Kong). Shrenuj is also a participant in DTC's Forevermark Programme in Japan and India.