SK Jewellery : is Disrupting the Jewellery Industry with an All-New Alternative

Singapore, 17 October 2019 - SK Jewellery Group Limited ('SK Jewellery Group' or the 'Company' and, together with its subsidiaries, the 'Group', 'SK珠宝集团'), is pleased to announce the launch of its Star Carat line, which features state-of-the-art laboratory grown diamonds ('LGDs'). Priced as much as 50% lower than its natural counterparts, the new alternative line now offers consumers a fine mix of quality, value, and sustainability - a combination the traditional diamond market has yet to offer.

The Group is expected to be the first jewellery chain in the region to offer both mined and lab-grown diamonds side-by-side. This strategic move aims to ride on the LGD wave, which has been gradually gaining traction over the past years in the United States. Forecasted to grow 22% annually to US$5.2 billion by 2023, the lab-grown diamond jewellery market is expected to be worth US$14.9 billion by 2035.

The steady growth in demand is, in part, due to consumers becoming increasingly receptive to these gem-quality alternatives, led by celebrities such as the influential Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. In particular, millennials - one of the Group's key target group - are displaying the greatest penchant for LGDs, with 70% of those surveyed open to buying a lab-grown diamond as their engagement ring center stone.

Origin aside, Star Carat diamonds are carbon-copies of mined diamonds; they are chemically, optically, and physically identical. Rather than being scoured from beneath Earth's surfaces, these precious stones are precisely grown in a high-tech lab, utilising cutting-edge technology to simulate the geological conditions required for diamonds to form naturally over billions of years.