Entrepreneur Nathalie Morrison is best known in business circles as the woman who took on Phones 4U tycoon John Caudwell in a bruising court battle that transfixed the City.
Eight years on, Morrison – then Nathalie Dauriac – has remarried, ironically enough to a lawyer, and started a lab-grown diamond jewellery business.
The brand, Astrea London, is backed by Sex And The City star Sarah Jessica Parker, while England rugby captain Maro Itoje has also been brought on as a brand ambassador.
Morrison, who previously set up two wealth management firms, is backed by City grandee Lord Stanley Fink, former boss of FTSE 100 hedge fund firm Man Group. Fink, who chairs Astrea, had the same role at Morrison’s most recent wealth business, Hay Hill, which she sold to private equity five years ago.
She became interested in lab-grown diamonds through a school mum friend. ‘At first, I didn’t know what a lab-grown diamond was,’ Morrison says. ‘I didn’t realise the harm caused by mined diamonds to the planet. I thought, if we can have these beautiful diamonds without ruining the earth then that will be great. Now I believe this could be my biggest business by miles.’
Brands such as Pandora and Swarovski dominate the mid-market for lab-grown pieces. Morrison has pitched for the very high-end, where she argues there is ‘not a lot of competition – yet’.
Ring of confidence: Nathalie Morrison became interested in lab-grown diamonds through a school mum friend
She argues that lab-grown stones could be so disruptive, they might spell the end of Bond Street, London’s famous jewellery thoroughfare, as we know it.
‘The Bond Streets of this world won’t be able to compete with the price of mined diamonds coming down, so one of the big players will move to lab-grown,’ Morrison says.
How did she bring in Sarah Jessica Parker? ‘I wrote to her. I could see how much she has influenced the fashion industry. I flew to New York to meet her. She is now a shareholder with 10 per cent of the company and she creates at least two collections a year.’
Morrison says the actress is nothing like her scatty character, Carrie. ‘Sarah Jessica is much more business-oriented than people would think from the show. I call her for financial advice.’
In good company: Sarah Jessica Parker is a shareholder in Astrea London
Itoje, who also owns a small stake, recently did a Hello! photoshoot for the brand with his wife, Mimi, sporting Astrea jewellery.
‘Men are going to be a big part of our offering. About 20 per cent of our sales are for men,’ Morrison says.
She began selling the jewellery ‘like Tupperware parties with the mums from school’ and started off with ‘just my own money.’
She raised £4 million, which she says valued the firm at £14 million last summer. Turnover this year, she says, is heading for £3 million.
She has opened an Astrea London boutique in the Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel, owned by billionaire hotelier Surinder Arora. And prior to the hostilities in Iran, she opened two stores in the Mandarin Oriental Jumeirah and the Five Luxe JBR hotels in Dubai. She is also working with the ruler of the United Arab Emirates to open a lab-grown diamond ‘museum’ in Abu Dhabi. Morrison has become an evangelist for lab-grown gems, objecting when anyone uses the term ‘real’ diamonds; she calls them ‘mined’ stones.
But the multi-billion-pound question is whether people will still buy into the status and romance of natural stones – even if lab-grown alternatives are cheaper and greener.
The boom in lab-grown gems is just one crisis facing the natural diamond market. This is symbolised by the plight of industry giant De Beers, which has been put up for sale by miner Anglo American but is struggling to find a buyer.
Not everyone is convinced lab-grown diamonds will vanquish their costlier rivals, however. De Beers itself entered the market in 2018 but withdrew last year, pointing to a 90 per cent fall in the wholesale price of the stones. This, it said, had reinforced its ‘belief in rare, high-value natural diamond jewellery’ as separate from the ‘low-cost, mass-produced’ lab-grown kind.
De Beers would say that. But respected industry analysts also argue that diamonds are an emotional rather than rational purchase. Lower prices for lab-grown stones, therefore, may not win over status-conscious buyers.
A Frenchwoman brought up in Bordeaux, Morrison, now 48, came to England 20 years ago for a postgraduate diploma at Cambridge and never left.
She says she became the youngest senior client partner at private bank Coutts at 26, before leaving at 29 to set up Signia Wealth with John Caudwell.
The acrimonious court case that ended their professional relationship came when she accused him of forcing her out of the business.
Both sides claimed victory in court. She has not seen Caudwell since.
‘I learned one lesson. If you are proud of your business, you need to keep control. And I would advise people to avoid going to court… even though my husband owns a law firm.’
DIY INVESTING PLATFORMS
Affiliate links: If you take out a product This is Money may earn a commission. These deals are chosen by our editorial team, as we think they are worth highlighting. This does not affect our editorial independence.