Cape-based Yair Shimansky is the CEO of South Africa’s premier platinum and diamond jewellery design retailer, Shimansky.
Under his guidance Shimansky has become respected worldwide for superb quality, cutting edge design, and superior workmanship. Shimansky’s clean and contemporary designs are inspired by the special moments in people’s lives, and offer unrivalled individual attention, service and attention to detail.
Humble beginnings
Born in 1967 to a sea captain father and full-time mother, Yair began traveling on board his father’s maritime tanker from the tender ago of three months old – which led to an ongoing passion for travel. At the age of 22 Yair spent two years in Japan learning the intricacies of various qualities and types of diamond and diamond cuts. From that moment on, he has been on an unstoppable quest to learn everything there is to know about the jewellery and diamond industry.
In 1991, on a visit to see his parents, he met the woman who was later to become his wife, and decided to make South Africa his home.
His first business venture was a flea market stall on the Durban beachfront, which then moved to a barrow in the Wheel, and in 1994 his first Shimansky Jewellers stand alone store was opened.
The Shimansky philosophy
For Shimansky, passion, dedication, and integrity are as important to the creative process as skill and expertise, and when buying a diamond from Shimansky, the customer is buying more than just a diamond – they are buying a “moment of fire” that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Shimansky is the only diamond jewellery retailer in South Africa to encompass all aspects of the diamond retail industry – from owning its own high quality jewellery manufacturing facilities and highly specialised diamond polishing, to retailing the end-product and creating an aspirational brand. Their diamond division currently exports Shimansky diamonds to all corners of the earth, through their international wholesale offices in New York and Hong Kong.
