Introduction: DPT Antwerp is establishing a fast-growing presence across airports, cruise and inflight while championing its proposition of accessible natural diamond jewellery.
The Antwerp-based jewellery house now counts 118 travel retail points-of-sale, up +38% year-on-year, with further opportunities across the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Yet for Co-Founder and CEO Edward Verté, growth is about more than adding doors.
In this interview, Verté discusses the importance of consistency as DPT Antwerp scales, the evolving conversation around natural diamonds, the experiential opportunity in jewellery and the brand’s growth ambitions across cruise, airport and inflight retail.
The Moodie Davitt Report: DPT Antwerp has expanded rapidly across airports and cruise retail over the past two years. What has been the biggest lesson from that growth journey?
Edward Verté: The biggest lesson is that scale only means something if every door delivers the same level of craft. We have 118 points-of-sale across travel retail today (+38% since last year).
It is becoming more and more clear that having stock depth, immaculate visual merchandising and well trained staff are just as important as securing the space itself.
We are also incorporating an element of personalisation wherever the format allows, such as small touches that make a piece feel chosen rather than picked off a shelf. That discipline is what lets us expand across different channels. It is why a shop-in-shop at sea, a counter in a department store, a spinner display in an airport, will all feel unmistakably like DPT Antwerp.
Where a location underperforms, it is almost always one of those three pillars. We work closely with the partner’s merchandising and buying teams until it is resolved. That is part of what a retail partner should expect from us.
You’ve spoken previously about making ‘a diamond day, everyday’. How has that vision evolved as DPT Antwerp has expanded internationally?
It started as a statement about occasion, the idea that a diamond does not need to wait for an anniversary or a milestone. As we have expanded across airports, cruise and department stores, that idea has become as much about context as it is about occasion.
Whether it’s a traveller boarding a cruise ship, a passenger passing through an airport, or a customer browsing a department store floor, our promise to them stays the same: offering natural diamonds that are within reach.
The promise has not changed. However it now has to cut through different channels such as cruise, airport and inflight. This has made us more disciplined about what stays consistent in the brand and what adapts to the channel.
What does success in travel retail look like for DPT Antwerp over the next three to five years?
For me, success is having instant brand recognition across formats, not just a long list of doors. This means continuing to build our cruise presence, rolling out across our partners’ retail networks and further building our foothold in regions where we see a big potential.
If DPT Antwerp becomes a name retailers bring up unprompted when they think about accessible fine jewellery, rather than one they need introducing to then to me that is success.
Are there particular regions or channels where you still see untapped opportunities for the brand?
We want to be ready once the Middle East picks up again as I believe we have strong alignment between our positioning and that market’s appetite for natural diamonds. For example we recently expanded our at Hamad International Airport with Qatar Duty Free to a fully branded wall bay and two extra spinners. We also want to grow further in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. We have recently launched in Madinah and Dammam with Lagardère Travel Retail in Saudi Arabia.
Southeast Asia is another priority and we are soon launching in Kuala Lumpur. Latin America is in the earlier stages, while Africa is newer territory for us but we see long-term potential across the continent. In the region, we have just opened at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and are close to a further opening in Dakar with Lagardère Travel Retail.
Cruise, airport and inflight all still have room to grow. Cruise remains the largest channel for us in absolute terms, but airport retail and inflight are catching up quickly, and I expect that gap to close over the next few years.
How are traveller perceptions of natural diamonds changing and how is this affecting your business?
The rise of lab-grown has actually sharpened rather than diminished interest in natural diamonds, because it has forced a conversation about what makes a diamond meaningful in the first place. Travellers are asking more questions about origin, rarity and what they are actually paying for.
That works in our favour, because our proposition has always been built on transparency: natural diamonds set by hand in Antwerp, ar a price point that does not require a special occasion to justify. What we are seeing at the point-of-sale is less about convincing people that natural diamonds matter, and more about giving them the information to feel confident in their purchase.
“Our main goal is to build spaces the feel personalised rather than replicated”
– DPT Antwerp Co-Founder and CEO Edward Verté
Cruise has become a major pillar of DPT Antwerp’s business, with ambitions to be present on around 80 ships. What makes cruise such an attractive channel for the brand?
By September we will reach that 80 cruise ship milestone thanks to our launch with Harding+ on an extra 16 ships. We are also already sailing with Gebr. Heinemann on nine ships, and our Ocean cruise-exclusive collection is gaining great traction on the first 30+ cruises carrying this distinctive line.
Cruise gives us something airports cannot: time. A guest onboard a cruise has days, not minutes, and that changes the entire dynamic of how jewellery gets discovered and considered. It is a controlled environment with a captive, repeat audience, which means we can invest in storytelling and staff training and actually see it convert.
We recently launched our first fully branded shop in shop at sea with Avolta onboard Norwegian Cruise Line Jade. This has confirmed the efficacy of our approach. We are now working to extend that model across other cruise lines. All in all, the pipeline of further cruise launches is one of the most active parts of our business right now.
Travel retail has become increasingly focused on experiential retail. What does experience mean for a jewellery brand?
For jewellery, experience is not screens or gimmicks, it is the physical and emotional moment of trying something on and having someone who understands the product guide that moment.
That means investing in staff who can talk credibly about craftsmanship and about Antwerp’s diamond heritage, not just process a sale. It means a fixture that invites someone to stop and look rather than walk past. And increasingly it means giving the product a story that extends beyond the counter.
Our exclusive Ocean cruise collection is an example of that. It gives travellers a reason to engage with the brand that goes beyond the piece itself. For us, experience is really about making a five-minute interaction feel considered rather than transactional.
What are your biggest priorities for the year ahead?
Our main goal is to build spaces that feel personalised rather than replicated. We want travellers to recognise DPT Antwerp immediately, whether on a cruise ship or transiting an airport, but still feel like the space was designed around them rather than a template.
That means investing in fixtures, staff training and the kind of small personalisation touches we talked about earlier, instead of just simply adding doors.
Alongside that, we are continuing to expand in cruise, airport and inflight. We are on track to be onboard 83 ships by September and have opened 17 new airport locations in the past 12 months largely with our interactive spinner display. This includes a first opening with Avolta in Kos, Greece. Inflight remains the channel with the most room left to grow.
I want to emphasise that door count is not the real priority but instead making every one of those spaces feel considered rather than repeated. We are with Harding+, Avolta, Gebr. Heinemann and Lagardère across different channels. Our priority with every partner is the same: open new doors without losing the level of craft that got us there in the first place. ✈
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