Building a legacy in Africa:
Creating a manufacturing center and a country brand
A diamond polisher at work at the Grandview Klein factory in Namibia, Windhoek.
When on Sunday, October 8, 2023, Grandview Klein Group’s president Moshe Klein first looked at his cellphone, he realized that something was very wrong. Based in New York and religiously observant, he had kept the device off the previous day, which was both the Jewish Sabbath and the holiday of Simchat Torah.
As Klein told Brecken Branstrator of National Jeweler several month later, he discovered on the phone numerous missed calls and messages from an employee at the group’s cutting and polishing facility in Windhoek, the capital of the southwest African state of Namibia. They all expressed deep concern about the fate of the factory’s executive director, Isaac Siton, who had been on a family visit to Israel, which one day earlier, on October 7, had been subject to a horrific cross-border attack from Gaza.
Itzik, as he was affectionately called, was known to have traveled with his wife, Hannah, and son, Tal, to spend the Sabbath and holiday with his sister-in-law, Pessy, who lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, an agricultural community located immediately adjacent to the Gaza Strip. A colleague had spoken to him more than once in the hours after the attack began, and Itzik sounded calm, saying that he and his family were sheltering in a safe room. But after 11:00 AM all attempts to call him had gone unanswered.
As more information trickled in, the news was not good. More than 100 people were known to have been killed at Kibbutz Be’eri, and among the first bodies identified were those of Tal and Pessy. But there remained a possibility that Itzik and Hannah had been kidnapped into Gaza. At the Grandview Klein factory in Namibia a candlelight service was held, praying for their safe return.
It was not until October 17 that the bodies of Itzik and Hannah were formally identified.
Isaac (Itzik) Siton, Grandview Klein Namibia’s Executive Director, whose life was tragically taken on October 7, 2023, during the cross-border attack on southern Israel, together with those of his wife, son and sister-in-law.
Signing on to beneficiation in Africa
Itzik lived and worked in Africa for almost 20 years, having originally being sent by Grandview Klein’s predecessor, Julius Klein Diamonds, to what then was a new production facility in Johannesburg. The company had been among the pioneers of what became known as beneficiation, by which rough diamond producing countries offered regular supplies of goods to manufacturers who were ready to invest in and help develop local cutting and polishing industries. South Africa, whose then-president Thabo Mbeki originally articulated the beneficiation strategy, initiated the process.
Julius Klein Diamonds had been established in New York in 1948 by Julius Klein, a polished diamond trader who had immigrated to the United States after World War II. He was joined in the business several years later by his brother Jacob, a rough diamond specialist who also had set up a company in New York. With their skill sets complementing each other, the two Holocaust survivors successfully developed the company into one of the largest diamond suppliers in the United States. In the early 2000s they saw opportunity to grow further by signing on to the beneficiation program.
Its first African factory was established in Johannesburg in 2001, where it was soon awarded a sight by De Beers Consolidated Mines, the famous mining company’s South African subsidiary, in no small part due to the reputation that Jacob’s son, AD, had created for himself as one the industry’s leading rough diamond experts. The factory in Windhoek, Namibia, followed in 2008, receiving a sight from the local De Beers subsidiary, the Namibia Diamond Trading Company (NDTC), and its factory in Gaborone, Botswana, was formed in 2011, and soon after received a sight from Botswana DTC.
The three African facilities complemented the company’s still-operating factory in New York City, which for many years has been known as one of the world’s most skilled experts in the cutting and polishing a very large diamonds, of 5 carats and larger.
Grandview Klein itself is a relatively new entity. In 2019, the original company underwent an amicable split, whereby AD and his children, Moshe and Shaya, established the independent Grandview Klein, a diamond manufacturing operation that incorporates within it the factories in New York, Johannesburg, Windhoek and Gaborone, retaining the De Beers sight allocations in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. Julius Klein Diamonds continued as a wholesale trading business, headed by AD’s cousin, Martin Klein, and his son Mark.
Management, administrative and production staff of Grandview Klein Namibia, photographed on the grounds of the company’s cutting and polishing facility in Windhoek.
The creation of a Namibian factory
In many respects, the Grandview Klein factory in Namibia (GKD Namibia), with Itzik Siton at the helm, was to become the jewel in the company’s African crown, with a workforce almost the same size as the Johannesburg and Windhoek factories combined. The steady supply of high-quality rough from NDTC, most of which are alluvial goods scooped from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, serve the group’s area of expertise, which is high-quality polished diamonds of 2 carats and more.
Julius Klein Namibia was incorporated in June 2007, and work began on the construction of a standalone, state-of-the-art factory in Windhoek, with an initial investment of more than 30 million Namibian dollars, worth more than 3 million U.S. dollars at the time. It was officially opened in March 2008, at a ceremony attended by Namibia’s then head of state, President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
To establish a viable polished diamond production center in a country where one previously had not existed required the nurturing of a skilled workforce. The goal of the management of the new operation was to provide employees with the training, techniques and knowledge necessary to become proficient in all aspects of the cutting and polishing process.
Production staff at Grandview Klein’s cutting and polishing plant in Namibia.
It began by sending some its initial recruits to South Africa, where they studied at the Harry Oppenheimer Diamond School. Other recruits were assigned as trainees at the company’s Johannesburg factory. They were educated in bruting, the operation of automatic polishing machines, laser and mechanical sawing, boiling, grading, marking and stone analysis. Some received training on the company’s Fantasy stock control computer program, which tracks diamonds from the point that they are received as rough goods through to the final polished stones.
A number of trainees became apprentices in the factory’s workshop, where they were taught to refurbish and repair the scaives on which diamonds are polished. Today the company offers scaif-refreshment services to other diamond cutting operations in both South Africa and Namibia. It also now operates an in-house training program for new staff members, rather than sending them to train in Johannesburg.
Pupils at the Eros Primary School in Windhoek surrounding Gil Reichman, who heads Grandview Klein’s operation in southern Africa. The school has received substantial support from the diamond company, including computer equipment, sanitary supplies, assistance in recovering from flood damage and scholarships for graduates.
Giving back to society
As it has in South Africa and Botswana, Grandview Klein has seen its role in Namibia as extending beyond the industrial and economic life of the country, and into its social fabric.
“When we came to Namibia in 2007, our goal was not just to create jobs in our factories and provide training for Namibian citizens throughout our operations, but also to embark on various corporate social responsibility initiatives aimed at improving the lives of the people,” said Moshe Klein, speaking at a ceremony in November last year, where Grandview Klein awarded scholarships to two female students from the Namibia University of Science & Technology (NUST).
“These scholarships signify more than financial assistance – they symbolize GKD’s steadfast dedication to creating pathways for success and dismantling barriers that hinder the pursuit of knowledge,” said Ester Hakwenye, a director of Grandview Klein Namibia. “By supporting the education of these talented individuals, GKD is investing not only in their brighter futures but also in the prosperity of the communities they represent.”
The range of the company’s social investment in the country has been broad, and began quite soon after its arrival in Namibia, when it helped fund construction of a shelter and home for abandoned children in a township close to Windhoek.
In May 2023, together with Namibian partners from Phillipine Angula Development Investments, Grandview Klein refurbished a computer room and donated equipment to the Eros Primary School in Windhoek. It also contributed funds to repair the roof, walls and floors at the school that had been destroyed by recent rainstorms, and helped establish a scholarship fund that offers financial support to students pursuing further studies at institutions of higher learning.
In September 2022, again together with Phillipine Angula Development Investments, Grandview Klein donated three dialysis machines to the Oyetweni Health Centre in Windhoek. At the handover ceremony, Namibia’s health minister, Dr. Kalumbi Shangula, emphasized the critical need in the country for such equipment, stating that too many patients with kidney disease are often sent home, as dialysis is primarily offered only to those with the most acute conditions.
The Grandview Klein Dialysis Department at the Otweni Centre in Windhoek. The diamond company donated three dialysis machines in 2022, together with Phillipine Angula Development Investments.
The marketing of Namibia
Over the years Grandview Klein has operated its factory in Windhoek, the Namibian origin of the polished diamonds it produces in the country has taken on an ever more integral role, and indeed today could be considered a significant component of their added value.
“It’s not simply that we source and process diamonds in Namibia, but that they are Namibian diamonds and are inherently associated with the country, its natural beauty and its heritage,” explained Gil Reichman, who heads the company’s operations in southern Africa. “What we have learned is that when our customers come to appreciate this unique identity, and then, when they explain it to their own customers, the attractiveness of our product is enhanced.”
In its contacts with clients, Grandview Klein has also emphasized the capacity of natural diamonds to generate sustainable economic and social development.
A delegation of Grandview Klein clients from the United States, during a visit to Namibia, during which they boarded a vessel operated by Debmarine Namibia, which mines alluvial rough stones off the floor of the ocean.
It even brings its clients to Africa to see for themselves the results on the ground. “Their core values of craftsmanship, trust, dedication and integrity allow them to support the industries and communities in which they do business, inspiring others to do the same,” wrote Kat and Larry Stokes, the owners of Texas-based Korman Fine Jewelers, who made such a trip in August 2022. “Korman is proud to stand with Grandview Klein in their mission to come alongside the communities that have given so much to us.”
As a service to its retail customers, Grandview Klein is working with a French media company to produce 3-D movie experience about Namibia and its diamonds. Wearing virtual reality goggles, retail jewelry store clientele will be able to immerse themselves in the country, seeing how diamonds are mined on land and deep beneath the ocean, and then are transformed into polished stones in the company’s Windhoek factory. They also will be provided a taste of Namibia’s breathtaking scenery and stunning wildlife. The movie, which will soon be released, can be customized for the retailer or jewellery brand as a marketing tool.
Remembering the fallen
At an afternoon ceremony in late October 2023, members of staff, management and Namibia’s growing diamond community gathered on the grounds adjacent to the Grandview Klein’s factory in Windhoek, to honor the lives of the late Itzik Siton, his wife Hannah and son Tal.
“Our diamond industry has lost an icon,” said Brent Eiseb, CEO of NDTC, addressing the gathering. “We were privileged in Namibia to have had someone like Itzik to be part of us, and we are better because of it. The legacy he leaves will drive us forward.”
The ceremony concluded with a song of tribute sung by a choir of Grandview Klein Namibia employees, after which attendees released balloons skyward in memory of the fallen.
A ribbon was then cut revealing a plaque that declared that the factory would henceforth be known the Isaac Siton Memorial Building.
The memorial service held at the Grandview Klein Namibia in Windhoek in late October 2023, to honor the memory of Itzik Siton and the members of his family who died alongside him.
