Central Selling Organisation
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Central Selling Organisation (Cartel) | |
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Founder | Ernest Oppenheimer |
Interest of | Laurie Flynn |
The Central Selling Organisation (CSO) diamond cartel was formed in 1934 when De Beers chairman Ernest Oppenheimer offered to buy all the diamonds in the world.[1]
In July 2000, De Beers decided to abandon the CSO's 60-year price-fixing tradition of attempting to stabilise supply and demand in the world gemstone trade and concentrate instead on mining and marketing. Managing Director Gary Ralfe hoped to use De Beers' dominant position to persuade everyone in the industry to spend much more on marketing, and confirmed the company would continue its famous generic advertisements with the slogan "A diamond is forever".[2]
Related Document
Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
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Document:De Beers to abandon cartel | Article | 30 May 2000 | Dan Atkinson | De Beers hit a high point in profit terms in the boom year 1989-90, but the following decade was to cost its shareholders billions of dollars. The break-up of the Soviet Union brought a flood of illicit diamonds on to the market, as did the civil war in Angola. In abandoning the CSO diamond cartel, Managing Director Gary Ralfe hopes to use De Beers' dominant position to persuade everyone in the industry to spend much more on marketing. |
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