(IDEX Online) - Pandora's boss insists he won't cheapen diamonds, after the announcement in May that it would only use lab growns.
The Danish company which sold $3bn of "affordable luxuries" last year has now launched its Brilliance collection of rings, bangles, necklaces and earrings featuring lab growns of up to 1.00-ct.
But CEO Alexander Lacik says in an interview with the Bloomberg financial news website that he doesn't want to "denigrate the value the industry has built up around diamonds".
Until now only a tiny minority of its pieces - around 50,000 pieces out of 85m - have included diamonds.
But the switch to lower-priced lab growns - trumpeted by the company as part of its ethical and carbon neutral strategies - could significantly increase that proportion.
Lacik said staff had been trained to explain that some diamonds are sourced through the geological route and others through modern technology. "But the outcome is exactly the same," he said.
Pandora's lab grown range is now available in the UK and will be rolled out to Pandora's 7,000 points of sale by next year.