No Longer Coy, Titan Moves into Lab-Grown

Indian jeweler Titan Company has launched its first lab-grown diamond brand, following analyst calls over the past year that hinted it was moving in that direction.

The company, which in the past had remained staunch in its positioning as a natural-diamond-only business, will introduce the new brand, called beYon, on December 29, it said Friday. The exclusive retail store in Mumbai will cater to “the adornment needs of women in lifestyle categories beyond watches, perfumes, saris and handbags,” the company elaborated.

Titan plans to add more stores in Mumbai and Delhi “in the immediate future,” it continued.

A year ago, the company seemed to open the door to this possibility during an analyst call to discuss its results. When asked what was stopping it from moving into lab-grown, former managing director C.K. Venkataraman replied, “Why do you think anything is stopping us from getting into [lab-grown]? We have not yet launched.” That response came only a few months after he stated in another analyst call that Indian consumers were not into synthetics, and wanted to be assured that Titan was only selling natural and had no lab-grown.

In August, new managing director Ajoy Chawla reinforced the notion that Titan was chasing the lab-grown route when he noted that the company was “constantly watching, studying, analyzing and really reading what is going on at the customer and industry level,” and that it would “reserve the right to play the way we want to play, when we want to play.”

Chawla was less cagey about Titan’s outlook on the market for synthetics in India last month, noting that he expected a boom in the country. However, he added that consumers were not yet coming into Titan’s stores requesting lab-grown, but that the jeweler believed there was “growing interest.”

Titan, part of the Tata Group conglomerate, owns jewelry brands including Tanishq, CaratLane and Zoya. Meanwhile, affordable-fashion retailer Trent, another Tata business, launched lab-grown brand Pome last year.

Image: Lab-grown diamonds in tweezers. (Shutterstock)