Yakut Diamond Company (YDC) was established in 2007. It has its own diamond-cutting and jewelry operations located in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and is specialized in manufacturing diamonds and diamond jewelry.
YDK, being a customer of ALROSA and a participant of the Israel Diamond Exchange, has offices in the UAE and Hong Kong.
Below is the interview Alexander Maximov, CEO of YDK, gave to Rough&Polished.
How did you start on your way to the diamond business?
In 1999, I started to work with EPL Diamond, where I first dealt with security issues, but when EPL’s CEO Pyotr Fyodorov stayed for several years in Israel, I was involved in the company’s production as his deputy.
The diamond-cutting and jewelry business has been traditionally known for a high level of competition. In addition to that, there are specifically Russian administrative and tax barriers in this field. How did it come that you were able to take the plunge and establish your own company?
I decided to establish my own business in 2007, when I gained significant experience in manufacturing and acquired an understanding in terms of future jewelry processing techniques. I am a lawyer by my basic education, but it so happened that all my life has been associated with engineering. We decided that our production would be based on the most modern equipment, which could only be found. Something comparable only with the 21 century and only the best. Of course, equipment bought from Italy, Germany, Israel, or the United States is expensive, but it gives you flawless reliability and quality. This is the bare minimum in order to succeed in such a competitive market.
Reliability and quality may sound fine, but the jewelry business also means design and marketing…
And good teachers! In the beginning, we worked closely with a famous Malaysian company which was producing 3D designs of jewelry pieces for us. They have 200 designers in their staff, who are turning out very modern and original designs. Our design unit grew on this collaboration, and we gradually started to develop our own models, creating our own styles. Our collaboration continues up till now, but the phase of diligent apprenticeship has been passed: our works are winning awards at major international jewelry exhibitions.
Awards are given not only to your products, but even to your stores...
Yes, in 2011 our showroom in Yakutsk was the winner of The Best Jewelry Store of the Year Contest run by the Navigator for Jewellery Trade, a Russian magazine. The uniqueness of this trading company is in that customers may not only buy a ready-made jewelry set, but also have a chance to see how the company’s craftsmen and specialists create it. In general, our own sales network is developing quite successfully, and I hope that we shall be able to add a boutique in St. Petersburg to our showrooms in Yakutsk, Moscow, Astana, and Hong Kong. We are also developing special applications to allow consumers to use our automatically updated catalogs of jewelry goods on their mobile devices. You can see pictures of our goods, prices, composition, and diamond characteristics. It is modern, fast, easy and safe.
It is no secret that many Yakut companies, both diamond-cutting and jewelry making, appear to be Yakut in their names only, preferring to keep production abroad. On the contrary, you are trying to stay within your "home walls," and even your overseas missions are manned mostly by Yakuts. Is this a principled stand?
Indeed, today, many of our diamond manufacturers and jewelers are attempting to establish their factories in China and in other places where labor is cheap. I do not think this is the main way for our development. Of course, globalization is inevitable, but that does not preclude our understanding of responsibility for the prospects of diamond industry in this country. You know, jewelers working around the world are very patriotic and if Italian brands are promoted by the Italians, it means that Yakut diamonds should, of course, be advanced by Yakut companies.
Galina Semyonova, Rough&Polished, Yakutsk
