Silver has gotten so costly that the world's biggest jewelry seller is turning to a metal usually considered more upscale: platinum. Pandora, which uses more than 300 tons of silver a year for its signature charm bracelets and other pieces, says the recent spike in silver prices is straining its "affordable luxury" pitch. Silver has more than doubled over the past year to about $80 an ounce, far outpacing the rise in gold and even beating platinum's more modest climb to roughly $2,100 an ounce. That volatility has left the Danish jeweler heavily exposed to a single raw material. "It is very risky for any business to be dependent—so highly—on one commodity price," new CEO Berta de Pablos-Barbier tells the New York Times.
To blunt that risk, Pandora will roll out a new line of platinum-plated jewelry on a metal alloy and aims to shift at least half of its silver products to platinum plating within a year. The move, detailed in a company filing, is meant to "reduce its reliance on sterling silver" while keeping prices in reach of its core customers. Executives say the alloy under the platinum layer will be key to holding down costs, and argue that shoppers will end up with a more durable product, since platinum resists corrosion and tarnish.
The strategic pivot comes as Pandora wrestles with weak consumer demand and US trade policy. The company manufactures in Thailand and plans another site in Vietnam, leaving it exposed to Trump administration tariffs of about 20% on goods from both countries. Since those sweeping tariffs were unveiled, Pandora's shares have lost more than half their value as silver has surged. The jeweler has hedged most of its 2026 silver needs at lower prices, but once those contracts expire, the success of its platinum shift will matter even more to its bottom line. Pandora could've seen its profit margin fall 11% without intervention, given current prices, per the Wall Street Journal. With the change, it expects a profit margin of 21% or more, per CNBC.
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