This year’s honorees include a Midwest retailer and two multi-store independents, one in New York and the other in New England.
Alrosa Adjusts Schedule, Releases June Sales Figures
The diamond miner pushed back its July and August trading sessions by a couple weeks.

Moscow—Alrosa is delaying its July and August sales by a couple weeks in light of current market conditions, the diamond miner announced last week.
Its July trading session, initially slated for July 12-17, will now be held from July 27-31 to support clients that expressed interest in purchasing rough during this period.
It will then move its next trading session from Aug. 10-14 to the second half of the month. Alrosa said it will announce exact dates for that session later.
“Today, when the largest end-consumer markets show signs of recovery, we answer our clients’ requests and amend our initial trading schedule that was formed last year,” Deputy CEO Evgeny Agureev said.
“We believe that balancing supply with demand is the most important tool to normalize cutters’ stocks level.”
Alrosa said diamond sales in June totaled $31.3 million—$24.8 million of that rough diamond sales and the remaining $6.5 million from polished diamond sales—an “expectedly low” number as the pandemic continues to affect the diamond industry.
The six-month sales total for the first half of 2020 was $991.1 million—$955.3 million from rough diamonds sales and $35.8 million from polished.
“Alrosa will use all its armor and resources to balance the supply of diamonds with confirmed demand and to avoid putting pressure on the market, which shows signs of recovery,” Agureev said.
Also last week, the company announced the resumption of operations at the Severalmaz processing plant, which had been idle since May.
Processing will continue until Oct. 8.
During this period, personnel will rotate in three shifts of 30 days each, an increase in shift durations intended to prevent spread of the coronavirus. All staff will be tested for COVID-19 before arriving on site.
Then from Oct. 8 to April 1, 2021, the processing plant will be put on care and maintenance.
Alrosa predicts it will mine 28-31 million carats of diamond this year, down from the initial guidance of 34 million carats.
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