Our Story

Carats’ history from roots to present is a story about a powerful idea brought to fruition. It's a story about one man's vision created from scratch and pursued against all odds.

Over 27 years ago, our diamond offices began in the briefcase of a travelling salesman and grew into our current headquarters at the World Trade Center, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Carats’ founder was employed as the Canadian National Distribution Manager with Grey & Sons Diamonds (Canada) Ltd. out of Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp has been the centre of the diamond universe for over 450 years and continues to be the dominant player today.

Carrying a briefcase full of diamonds, the owner would board a commercial plane in Europe, fly to Halifax, rent a car and drive across the country selling diamonds to wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers.

Our intrepid traveller carried on his person millions of dollars at the mercy of fate.

As you may imagine, this was an extremely dangerous job. It was this incubator of daily pressure that gave birth to his unshakable determination. There were numerous attempts on his life, the biggest threat being jewellers willing to expose his cover to unsavoury characters.

What would make most people throw in the towel and settle for a desk job simply strengthened his resolve.

And it was through dealing with jewellers and retail stores that he learned the most important components of the diamond business…

"What a ‘quality diamond’ actually is."

He also discovered that he could directly buy and broker diamonds for far less than the retail mark-up price charged in jewellery stores.

In December of 1989, his contract with Grey & Sons Diamonds Ltd. was up. Instead of renewing his contract, he decided to set off on his own. He started a company called Diamonds Direct.

Diamonds Direct began as a small company operated from a safety deposit box. In the mornings, he’d receive freshly imported diamonds and spend the duration of his working hours selling gems to retail jewellers.

Over time, all that hard work began showing results and the company started to grow.

And then one day a serendipitous moment in our history occurred...

A close friend of his was being engaged and it occurred to him, “why should you be paying retail prices when I can find you a bigger and better quality diamond at a better price?”

This lead to the next leap in Carats’ evolution; direct selling to the consumer at whole sale prices.

The rest is history and today we are Carats - The Colored Diamond Company...“The World’s Most Beautiful Diamonds at Prices that Defy Comparison.”

All it took was a few happy customers and the referrals started pouring in. The sales of the company literally tripled within that first year of direct selling. Since then Carat’s has built a reputation on the bedrock of trust.

We continue to cater to a niche market and the reason is simple; we sell beautiful diamonds directly to customers at unbeatable prices.

All this started with the travelling sales man with a briefcase of diamonds.