The company’s background
The history pages of the Russian diamond industry have been written relatively not long ago.
The Yakutia rough diamonds narration could be started from the 13 June of 1955, when in USSR a report was published about diamonds deposit’s discovery in Yakutia. Later it became the famous kimberlite pipe called “Mir”. One of the largest diamond produced at the “Mirny” mine was a rough diamond of 51.66 carat. This is a large, octahedral, limpid, with a small yellow tint diamond.
From 1957 Yakutia diamonds began to be stored in the USSR State Depository (Gokhran). Two years later the state began selling diamonds on foreign markets.
In June 1961 the USSR Council of Ministers took a decision to construct the first in the country diamond factory in Smolensk. The construction and training were at the same time. Manufacturing started on a temporary basis at one of the instrument-making enterprises. On 1st March 1963 by the Ministry of Finance of USSR the Smolensk Diamond Factory was founded, and a mere 18 days later the Central Directorate of the State marks production ordered to sell the first lot of polished diamonds.
The factory, which would eventually become the Kristall Production Corporation, was for many years headed by Igor Sudovsky, who was a talented leader of the company and very qualified specialist.
In September 1988 Alexander Shkadov became the new head of Kristall. At the enterprise new progressive technologies, modern equipment and instruments were developed.
In 1992 Kristall received government approval to sell its goods independently on the international market and sold successfully the first box of goods. This was a revolutionary step for the further development not only for Kristall but for the Russian diamond industry as a whole.
In the difficult period of post-Soviet political and economical transition, thanks to strong management, Smolensk Kristall expanded its scale production and came at the higher level of quality manufacturing.
The right contacts with foreign partners were established, Kristall products appeared with success at jewellery exhibitions in Japan, Israel and Thailand. In 1994 the Smolensk Diamonds Association was established in Smolensk.
In August 1998 Yuri Rebrik was appointed a head of the corporation. Increased competition in the world diamond market demanded a new approach to production, trade and marketing. Kristall completed its global trade network with a presence in all major diamond markets.
In January 2005 Maxim Shkadov was appointed General Director of the open Joint Stock Company Kristall Production Corporation. Between March and July 2005 the main production operation was reorganized. The company begun to develop the product promotion strategy aimed at individual approach to every market.
Thanks to the company orientation to the high and prestigious market segment, the quality of goods, Kristall Production Corporation stood with minimal loss a crisis of the world diamond industry and at the end of 2006 shown even a growth of sales volume.
At present Kristall is on the Russian Federation President’s list of the country’s strategically important companies.
Now thanks to its scale of manufacture, state-of the-art production facilities, many thousand-strong workforce and high quality products, the city of Smolensk is firmly on the map as diamond capital of Russia.