By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – Danish jewellery maker Pandora plans to expand its lab-made diamonds product range after customers said they liked the concept but wanted more choice, its boss said on Thursday.

Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery maker by production capacity, launched its lab-made diamonds collection in August across 269 stores in the United States and Canada as well as online after a smaller pilot launch in Britain in 2021.

The move followed its decision to stop selling mined diamonds.

Chief Executive Alexander Lacik said the group currently offers a total of about 1,200 design variations (DVs), of which just 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.

Further geographical roll-out of the lab-made diamonds collection is planned for 2023, though Lacik declined to say which countries were 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.

Lacik said the global jewellery market has a stated worth of about $250 billion, of which diamonds account for about $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 on Wednesday reported a 7% rise in 2022 sales but forecast a broad range between a drop of 3% and an increase of 3% for this year, amid uncertainty over economic growth and its impact on consumer demand.

The company’s shares have risen 34% so far this year.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)