Arun Narayan, chief executive officer, jewellery division, Titan, took over as its head in January at a time when gold prices have remained volatile. He also came in when Titan stepped into the lab-grown diamond category with beYon, even as it continues to push natural diamonds. In an interview with Viveat Susan Pinto, Narayan throws light on the current jewellery buying trends, stress at lower price points and growth plans for beYon. Excerpts:
1) How are you ensuring that lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds sit seamlessly in your portfolio? Does cannabalisation of sales concern you?
No. Cannabalisation of sales is not a concern because India is an ‘and’ not ‘or’ market for diamonds. Consumers here don’t see lab-grown diamonds as a substitute for natural diamonds, unlike in some western markets. They define different roles for both segments. That gives us hope that the two segments can sit seamlessly in our portfolio. The second aspect is the potential of the diamond market here. Just about 10–12% of the jewellery market here is studded; the bulk is plain gold. Yet, we are the second-largest diamond jewellery market in the world.
This speaks of the potential of the market and diamond adoption in general, which is enormous. Having said that, beYon has been positioned firmly in the fashion and indulgence space. Our lab-grown diamond pricing is attractive, but there is no buyback on the diamond stone. It is only on gold. In natural diamonds, our proposition is to strengthen confidence and understanding of the category. That is where our diamond expertise centres in partnership with the De Beers Group comes in. These centres assess diamond quality and origin, offering real-time assurance and peace of mind. What Tanishq’s karatmeters have been for gold jewellery (in terms of testing the purity of gold used), this is for diamond jewellery.
2) How many such centres have you set up so far?
We’ve been piloting this quietly at Tanishq stores for the last few months. We will have about 50 such centres by the end of this month within Tanishq stores. We intend to scale up quickly and launch around 200 centres by next month and eventually across most of our over 500 Tanishq stores in India. We are also taking these centres international and have opened one so far at our Tanishq store in Dubai. The plan is to extend this to all our international stores in time. Once we complete the rollout at Tanishq, we’ll evaluate how to extend the diamond expertise centres to other brands.
3) While Q3 has been good for most jewellers owing to festive and wedding season buying, what are the trends you are seeing in Q4 of FY26? Are lower-value buyers still under pressure due to volatility in gold prices?
Yes, elasticity differs across segments. Higher-value consumers have absorbed the price rise better. At lower price points, some consumers are waiting for prices to cool. That said, value growth remains strong even if volume growth is under pressure.
As far as overall buying trends are concerned, volatility has created purchase advancement. Customers with weddings later in the year are buying now due to anxiety around future gold prices. While this is positive for short-term sales, consumer anxiety isn’t healthy for the overall market.
4) How are you helping consumers manage this anxiety?
Gold exchange is the most effective solution. Nearly 50% of our purchases today involve some form of exchange. We remain transparent about the process. Old gold is melted in front of the customer. Buy and sell rates are identical and there are no hidden deductions.
5) How is your store expansion strategy shaping up?
We’re doing two things simultaneously at Tanishq. We are upgrading existing stores — about 50–60 renovations are happening every year. We are also adding new stores. Roughly 35-40 new Tanishq stores are added annually. However, the real scale-up is happening at Mia, which will soon cross 300 stores in terms of count. Internationally, we have close to 30 Tanishq stores across North America and the Middle East. This number will be steadily increased.