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From the diamond mine to the wine farmLondon-born diamond jeweller and merchant, Laurence Graff created a global jewellery empire selling exclusive pieces to the elite. Leadership explores the facets of an energetic entrepreneur at his new proudly Stellenbosch tourism venture.
It may have something to do with the subject matter, but there is a sparkly glint to Laurence Graff’s eyes. They fix on details in that habit of keenly attuned craftspeople, crinkling into an excited smile when pet subjects provide a trigger.
British diamond merchant Graff cuts a trim, fit figure in jeans and black trainer-style shoes on a South African Saturday. Settling into an armchair inside the Delaire Graff Estate restaurant, he does not look close to the septuagenarian he is.
Local tongues are wagging about the latest jewel in the Winelands crown. At the crest of the Helshoogte Pass where the road snakes towards Franschhoek from Stellenbosch, the Botmaskop peak backs the refurbished Delaire Graff Estate.
Graff closed the deal in 2003, employing top artisans to transform a rundown Delaire Estate property with vineyards into a viable restaurant, hotel and winery tourist drawcard.
Informed speculators say this landscaping, architectural and design overhaul cost in the region of R300 million, or will do so once the boutique hotel and spa with 10 villa-style suites are complete in early 2010.
Graff is no stranger to thinking big. The creator of high-end jewellery boutiques and a successful diamond wholesaling and manufacturing empire, he ranks among the United Kingdom’s wealthiest men.
The London-born son of Russian and Romanian immigrants left school to begin a jewellery apprenticeship at 15. By the age of 24, he owned two London jewellery shops; by 30, he had built one of the largest jewellery manufacturing businesses in Britain.
Graff was the first jeweller to be presented with the Queens Award for Industry & Export in 1973 – Graff Diamonds International Ltd has been awarded four times.
Today, over 30 international Graff Diamonds stores entice the world’s well heeled as repeat customers. Even notoriously picky female icons have seemingly happy associations with this brand – Paris Hilton, Naomi Campbell, Victoria Beckham and Oprah wear limited edition pieces on the Graff website under the “celebrity images” category.
Part of the Graff Diamonds success story is that the family-owned company controls every link in the diamond manufacturing process.
This is where Africa enters the picture.
In 1988 Graff bought a controlling stake in Johannesburg’s diamond wholesaler and manufacturer, the South African Diamond Corporation (Safdico), creating a vertically integrated diamond company.
Its manufacturing operations in South Africa, Belgium, Mauritius and New York oversee cutting and polishing tens of thousands of diamonds annually.
Graff Diamond’s London headquarters centralises the production and creation of Graff’s jewellery. “I’m hands-on – it’s a big business but family-owned, and small enough to be this way,” explains Graff.
His son and nephew are also involved. “I understand every part of the diamond industry, from A to Z. Although these days I spend most of my time on balance sheets, I still pay attention to the important stones.”
These turn out to be some of the most treasured gems around. The Idol’s Eye, the Emperor Maximilian, the Porter Rhodes, the Windsor Diamonds, Hope of Africa, the Begum Blue, the Paragon, Star of America, the Golden Star and the Lesotho Promise are all stones he has handled.
When Graff mentions casually that he “owns most of the historic and rarest” diamonds around, he is not joking. He acquired the 603-carat Lesotho Promise, the world’s 15th largest diamond, in 2006.
In 2007, Graff bought the 493-carat Letseng Legacy, the world’s 18th largest diamond ever mined.
Both were from Gem Diamonds’ Letseng Mine in Lesotho.
Mining Weekly reported in November 2008 that Graff bought a 4.5% stake in Gem Diamonds.
Although Graff Diamonds owns a 9.9% share in Letseng, it has to tender for diamonds like everyone else.
“We produce the important sized diamonds. A core part of our business is transforming diamonds in the rough to polished. We have a plant in Botswana and a factory for polishing.
“In South African mines, we work with South African diamonds from one to 100 carats,” Graff elaborates.
“When you have a diamond on your finger, you might have platinum from Russia, a diamond from Africa, workmanship from London and certificateship from America.”
What made a successful jewellery and jewel magnate move into wine and hospitality? The challenge of something new, obviously, but it surely takes boldness.
“I’m full of courage. When you see what I do with a rough diamond worth 10 or 20 million dollars, you’ll understand that you need courage,” Graff grins, the eyes twinkling again.
“We sometimes analyse gems for up to six months before we start cutting them. There are so many different ways to approach
a diamond.”
He has every excuse to slow down, but that seems unlikely. Graff’s attention is focused while explaining projects, but his perfectionist tendencies mean he cannot resist meddling where he has employed others.
I watch Graff reposition a restaurant flower arrangement and then a sculpture. He will reorder a menu item until sufficiently convinced it will satisfy global travellers tired of faddish food – the Delaire Graff restaurant’s battered fish and hand-cut chips are his addition.
“All my life I’ve felt 35. Now that I’m double that, I still feel 35. I’ll never retire. I don’t go home in the evening and put up my feet in front of the TV.”
How does he spend leisure time? Graff travels and eats out. He may practise speed walking with a trainer during summer business in New York; spending winter weekends skiing in Gstaad. His family home is in Switzerland.
“My spare time is mostly spent thinking up the next idea. I’m an ideas person. Every day, sometimes every five minutes... I drive my management mad,” he admits, referring to his business style.
“I want to know what’s going on, I have a lot of energy and need to express myself. But I listen, too, and I like good ideas from the people I
work with.”
In typical entrepreneurial fashion, Graff plans to turn Delaire Graff Estate into “one of the best spots” in South Africa. Competent chefs, winemakers and architects are ensuring the estate becomes a destination for world-class eating, views and wines.
The boutique hotel and spa, opening in early 2010, will add to that positioning.
Gesturing towards the restaurant’s oak tree-lined deck with panoramic vistas extending towards Franschhoek, Graff says the “most incredible view” clinched the deal in 2003.
“When I was offered this farm, I made the mental decision to buy it in five minutes, although I took 30 minutes to say yes. Over six months we concluded the deal.
“When I bought the farm, it was dilapidated. I’m no wine connoisseur, but it didn’t take an expert to know it was in bad shape,” he says.
Today the new 230-tonne capacity winery has every stainless steel tank and mechanised lever a winemaker could hope for. Vineyard investment is under way with an extensive replanting programme of correct cultivars in suitable locations.
Lavish expense does not buy taste, yet Delaire Graff Estate’s aesthetic success is seemingly due to interior spaces that frame magnificent views rather than vulgar decoration to impress. An understated African identity surfaces through the glass-walled barrel maturation cellar to the restaurant and viewing deck, or while sipping vintages in the relaxed wine-tasting lounge.
David Collins of London combined indigenous architectural influences with a Cape Dutch imprint, tastefully transforming the spaces with a fresh approach. A wall of slate sourced in the North West Province strikes a dramatic note against a peach-pip cement floor.
The restaurant’s Tanzanian oak ceiling blends seamlessly with bespoke light fittings, while French goldleaf-embossed leather hide ‘wallpaper’ envelopes six pillars in the private dining area adjacent to the downstairs vinoteque.
The grounds have extensively been overhauled. South Africa’s Keith Kirsten Horticulture has landscaped using indigenous plants where possible.
Sculptures by some of South Africa’s finest contemporary artists line the entrance walkway; private works hang on interior walls. An untitled William Kentridge, purchased in London 25 years ago, stares boldly past an orange S-shaped couch in the dining area.
A collaborative work by Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell overlooks wine-sipping customers in the tasting lounge.
As a jeweller, Graff has an eye for beautiful things, and his excitement visibly increases when the focus touches on his contemporary art collection. He sits on the International Director Council of both the Guggenheim in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
Transfixed momentarily by a noisy wine-tasting student group below the art trio’s collaboration, he mentions that he wants his art to be instructive.
He gets an educational kick out of lunching with South African artists, adding that he would like to help “establish” local artists such as Deborah Bell in Europe. He commissioned seven of her bronze sculptures.
In turn, Bell donated a bronze “Horse and Rider III” piece she cast for Graff’s October 2009 art auction at Christie’s London. It is in aid of FACET (For Africa’s Children Every Time), a charity Graff created recently to fund education, health and welfare of African children.
At one point, our meeting is interrupted by a representative for sculptor Dylan Lewis, to discuss the base for the latest cheetah sculpture outside the restaurant. I discover it is Laurence Graff’s 73rd birthday.
“I want more room to display art at Delaire Graff Estate. I want this to be more than only about eating and tasting wine, but an exiting place visually,” enthuses Graff. “I love art, and find it very hard to resist his animals. I have three cheetahs now. This one is my birthday gift to myself!”
Successful businessmen do not invest without expecting profits, so the movement into the hospitality industry and wine production is perplexing, the latter being a particularly capital-intensive industry that frequently takes more than one generation to show returns.
“It’s a bit of prestige for Graff…” he starts, but it is the rest of Graff’s comment that is telling. “…Getting diamonds out of the ground is difficult. The whole world knows we’re involved in Africa. Our diamonds come from Africa so we’re putting a bit back.
“This is a sidestep in a country that supplies us with a lot,” he says.
When Graff says he hopes to “do this as well as our core business”, he is wanting to make a different sort of mark.
Although Delaire Graff Estate restaurant and wine offerings are not pitched cheaply, you have the impression they are designed primarily as a new direction to the Graff Diamonds brand, rather than formidable revenue earners in their own right.
“The Cape has so much to offer holidaymakers: good food, wine, scenery and art. I travel around the world and I have homes in some glamorous places, yet I find it hard to leave every time. I see colours in nature in Stellenbosch that I don’t see elsewhere. We even have a wild leopard up on the Botmaskop and plan to put in a camera to track it. I find that exciting.”
Plans in the Delaire Graff Estate brand include rolling out wine, bottled water, honey, olive oil, gourmet chocolate and perishable produce.
Some products are already in production; setting up Cape Town stores to sell the range is the long-term plan.
A 300m-long greenhouse tunnel has been imported from Switzerland to grow herbs and organic produce on the farm.
When asked if Graff Diamonds’ jewellery stores will open in the Cape, Graff’s reply is “probably not”. Quite simply, the Graff Diamonds repeat jewellery customer operates in a different league.
“Look I’m not saying we don’t sell cheaper pieces, but the average sale is around US$200 000,” says Graff about spending patterns in his stores.
Put in context, it is hardly surprising that the company was targeted in August 2009. The armed robbery of Graff Diamonds’ store in London’s New Bond Street made international headlines, with merchandise stolen worth £43 million.
One of Britain’s largest jewellery thefts appears to have been the work of a highly professional operation, the robbers hiring professional make-up artists to create sophisticated disguises.
A “few junior pieces” of jewellery are available at the Stellenbosch estate for tourists, alongside styles from the recently launched Graff Watches range. The timepieces in question are limited editions ranging from US$18 000 to $1 million.
Graff shows off his own watch, a black, sporty style in diamond-like carbon that is virtually scratch-proof. Its many facets simulate the cuts of a diamond, a distinctive black diamond in the winder. Although each Graff timepiece design is unique, every watch has an emerald.
“I get very emotional about what I do,” he concludes. “Everything has to have integrity.
“When you put your own name to something, it has to be good.”
Kim Maxwell
