Industry Leading Liquidity Solutions for Jewelers

Adapting to the needs of a 21st-Century jewelry marketplace, Diamond Banc offers retailers a turnkey financial services system created by jewelers for jewelers.

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f you own a retail jewelry store, you know how difficult it can be to secure financing through a traditional bank. Need money for capital expenditures? Looking for an inventory-based loan to get you through a dry spell? As most jewelers already know, there’s probably a better chance of monsoon season coming to Southern California.

This is the exact scenario Mills Menser, a 33-year old, third-generation jeweler and owner of Buchroeders in Columbia, Missouri faced when he took over his father’s business in 2007. With a background in finance, Menser knew the score: The jewelry industry, inventory rich yet misunderstood by conventional lenders, needed help. Within a year, Diamond Banc—a full-service jewelry liquidity provider created by jewelers for jewelers—was launched. The company is poised not only to lend to jewelers but also to help owners to create entirely new income streams within their stores. Today, Diamond Banc offers the following:

• Jewelry-backed loans to retailers and their customers
• Capital to purchase diamonds and jewelry from the public with the option to retain the merchandise

While traditional lenders don’t know the difference between a VVS1 and melee, Diamond Banc does and jewelry-backed loans to jewelers are their specialty. Retailers pledge current inventory as collateral, and it is kept in Diamond Banc’s secure vaults. When the loan is repaid, the merchandise is returned. Loans can range anywhere from a few thousand to over one million dollars with monthly interest rates as low as 2.5% to 5% based on the loan size, says Menser.

Where the public is concerned, Diamond Banc will help jewelers to offer loans secured by diamonds, fine diamond or signed jewelry and luxury watches or purchase the jewelry outright. Currently, the majority of loans and buys are secured online through the company’s website (www.diamondbanc.com), but they are looking to partner with additional prominent jewelers to open new offices all over the country.

Today, a majority of Diamond Banc’s loans are made online.

Diamond Banc handles all the details, freeing jewelers to add services and income while not detracting from their traditional duties. The company works out the logistics with the customer and funds are issued directly. For loans, jewelers receive a monthly check for 25 to 40% of the interest fees collected until the loan is repaid in full. (Most loans carry an average term of six to 12 months.) For purchases, two checks are issued: One for the customer and the other, the percentage of the sale’s proceeds to the retailer.

Diamond Banc will work with jewelers in two ways: Using their services on an as-need basis, or for selected retailers, creating in-store Diamond Banc departments or a free-standing Diamond Banc location. Unlike a pawn shop, a trip to a trained Diamond Banc jeweler feels respectful, offering an interaction with someone who will accurately assess the customer’s jewelry, buy it outright or offer an asset-based loan.

It’s what Menser refers to as a “360 degree solution.” People can buy jewelry, sell it back, or use it as collateral for a loan—all from their trusted jeweler. Divorce rates, financial calamities or the millennial generation’s habit of forgoing luxury purchases—whatever the reasons, there will always be people who need to use their jewelry to get cash, says Menser. “Why shouldn’t jewelers get in on the game?”

As the jewelry industry faces unseen challenges, Diamond Banc offers new ways to help both jewelers and their customers unlock the liquidity of their fine jewelry. “The old ways of doing business are proving more costly and less effective,” says Menser. “Partnering with us allows jewelers to offer a new dimension of financial services that will add to their bottom line.”

 

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