Tacy Ltd.'s Activities

Tacy Ltd. Diamond Industry Consultants is a specialty strategic consultancy house and "think tank" exclusively serving the stakeholders in the international diamond industry. Tacy Ltd. operates within a dynamic fast-changing environment, which has gradually evolved from being a traditionally rather small and secretive diamond community once concentrated in a few producing and processing countries into a fiercely competitive and powerful business spread out around the globe. 

Diamonds are a high-value natural resource ultimately destined for end-use in the luxury-goods consumer market. Claims for an ever-larger share of the value chain are made by every part of the pipeline, ranging from producer to the retailer. Tacy Ltd.'s vast knowledge base and consultancy services extend to every aspect of the diamond pipeline and those players looking to enhance their standing in it.

Factors that profoundly influence the business of every player involved in the diamond pipeline include:

Ambitious governmental aspirations and policies in mining countries

• Differing corporate strategies among large and small producers
• Contradicting interests of traditional versus low-labor-cost manufacturing centers
• Vastly changing structural shifts in both processing and marketing areas
• Increasing reliance on banking and suppliers' financing
• Changing production technologies
• Educated discerning consumerism

Our clients, corporate actors in the industry, must recognize that, until recently, the worldwide diamond industry's market stability was underwritten by the policies of the dominant producers, which, acting in concert, were willing to hold and finance a buffer stock guaranteeing that rough diamond supplies were in a perennial equilibrium with demand. Historically, these producers had been willing to hold stocks at mine level and even adjust output ("swing producers") to assure stable and always upward-moving diamond prices. This protective shield has now disappeared. The dominant producers have rescinded their "industry custodianship," forcing all actors in the diamond pipeline to review their operations and to incorporate the new realities. Diamond prices have fluctuated in recent years, and we are deeply involved in developing economic models to predict future revenues.

Rough diamond producers (mining houses), in their efforts to expedite the change in the structure of the diamond industry from supply-controlled to demand-driven, are forcing a proliferation of strategic alliances and new forms of interfirm collaboration on their customers as a precondition for the supply of raw materials. While in many industrial sectors mergers and acquisitions are the preferred from to achieve corporate growth, the highly individualistic players in the diamond pipeline tend to seek alliances in which strategic autonomy is preserved. Though strategic alliances take place both horizontally as well as vertically, the partnering among diamond producers, polished diamond manufacturers, jewelry manufacturers and retailers often represents a joining of forces in pursuit of limited common goals, without abandoning the ability to also pursue their own specific interests. Players are faced with many options, and Tacy Ltd. makes great efforts to provide support to management in the decision-making process.