HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM AMI MESIKA

Read this amazing article today and am glad that so many of my peers have had success selling jewelry this holiday season. The company which I, Ami Mesika co-founded, GM Diamonds also had great success in 2010. Happy holidays to all and good reading:

http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullNews.asp?id=34862

IDEX Online News) - When a blizzard hit the Northeast U.S. last week, many viewed it as a blow to last minute holiday sales. But there were those that benefited from people being stuck at home - online retailers. It helped push U.S. online holiday season spending to a record $30.8 billion, comScore reported Wednesday.

E-commerce spending for the first 56 days of the holiday season increased 13 percent. The week ending December 26 witnessed $2.45 billion in spending, an increase of 17 percent versus the corresponding week last year.

The measuring firm also reported the top ten growing retail categories, saying jewelry and watch sales increased 11 percent compared to the first 56 days of the 2009 holiday season.

Computer Hardware ranks as the top growing category for the holiday season to date with a 23 percent increase versus last year. Purchases of handheld devices such as Apple iPads and laptops have driven much of the category growth.

“For at least this holiday season, the American consumer has been able to shrug off the continuing economic challenges of high unemployment rates and depressed housing prices and spend at a rate that has been slightly stronger than we had expected,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Ami Mesika

$3.5 Million Diamond Bottle Made in NYC...

Ami Mesika of NYC based GM Diamonds was today revealed as the maker of the most expensive bottle in the world ever priced at $3.5 Million dollars. The bottle was launched in Mexico City last month for Tequila LEY 925.

Ami Mesika said "This bottle was a pure 3.6kilo of platinum with 6,400 diamonds, for a total weight of 415ct. Simple awesome piece of work which sat in our office in NYC's Diamond District and we all admired."

The bottle won the Guinness record for the most expensive bottle in the world.
http://itsaglamthing.com/blog4/?p=208

http://everyjoe.com/play/3-5-million-bottle-of-tequila/

http://www.champagneliving.net/2010/12/can-you-afford-some-tequila-this-year.html

AMI MESIKA: Thankfully holiday jewelry and shopping seems to be up all over the US.

Christmas may only be a little more than a week away, but the National Retail Federation says the majority of Americans still have half of their lists left!At the end of last week, the NRF says 49.5 percent of Americans finished their holiday shopping by the second week of December.

That's up from 46.7 percent at the same time last holiday season. According to a NRF survey, 37 million people hadn't even started their shopping as of late last week. If you ask me, Ami Mesika, I believe that this holiday season will see a lot of growth.

Ami Mesika

AMI MESIKA FOLLOWING MEDIA TRENDS

Ami Mesika says he found this article in The Wall Street Transcript very interesting at:
http://www.twst.com/yagoo/Gannicott1one.html

Its an interview with Robert Gannicott who is the CEO of Harry Winston Diamond Corporation (formerly Aber Diamond Corporation), and he has been one of the Directors since its inception in 1992.

TWST: Would you tell us more about the trends you are observing in diamond demand?
Mr. Gannicott: The U.S. is still weak. Before we went into the recession, the U.S. was 50% of the world's off-take of diamond jewelry - so a very important place, of course, and it remains an important place. But thank goodness, as this horrible collapse that we've all experienced over the last year or so took place, the Far East came in to pick up the slack. Even though the pace of recovery in the U.S. is still pretty muted, viewed from the point of view of our own businesses, the diamond business has traditionally been a late-cycle performer, if you like. So in the U.S., it's still a struggle, it's improving, but it's still nowhere near where it was in the pre-crisis times. On the other hand, sales in Asia have been nothing short of spectacular. So obviously, we would expect that when the U.S. economy does get back on its feet again properly, and assuming that nothing goes wrong to seriously interrupt the flow of improvement in the Far East, then it should be a very exciting diamond market indeed.

Ami Mesika agrees with these trends and says that the jewelry business will get better.

Ami Mesika – December 2010