Titan company is seeing a resurgence in demand for diamonds, as younger consumers are opting for studded jewelry.
“I think it’s been a good run on studded jewelry, [which is] sustaining,” Titan managing director Ajoy Chawla said in an earnings call last week. “We’ve seen three quarters of good studded growth.”
The increased demand for diamond jewelry is relatively new for Titan, given Indian buyers generally prefer gold products, the company explained.
“We are a low diamond penetration country,” said Arun Narayan, CEO of Titan’s jewelry segment. “And perhaps over the last couple of years, the move was towards buying gold jewelry. And from January of this year, we are seeing a secular trend where customers are demonstrating greater interest in natural diamonds.”
Much of the increase is driven by newer purchasers, but the company is also seeing a revival among traditional consumers who had previously tended toward gold products, it noted.
“A lot of young customers are entering the market,” said Chawla. “And younger segments are quite comfortable buying studded jewelry. A lot of younger customers come and make their first purchase as a diamond product, and it’s across all three brands, Tanishq, Mia and CaratLane. But we do find a lot of traditional gold buyers also moving over to diamonds after having bought gold over a period of time, who tend to be slightly older customers. Perhaps in CaratLane or Mia, a lot of the customers are first-time diamond buyers. In Tanishq, it’s a mix of the two.”
Chawla also noted that while consumers have shown interest in synthetic diamonds, most of the new-buyer growth in the segment is from natural. He also pointed out that not only younger customers choose lab-grown.
“We don’t believe that lab-grown…is the reason for new buyers,” he added. “I think to assume that only new people come in and buy lab-grown diamonds may be inappropriate. I think lab-grown diamonds are currently at the early life stage of that category…and more existing diamonds buyers are experimenting as well. The size and quantum [of lab-grown] is so small that it cannot move the needle at an overall industry level.”
Image: A Tanishq diamond engagement ring. (Titan Company)
