Translate

Thursday, December 14, 2006

India: Diamonds + Wedding Season

Sreeradha D Basu & Sutanuka Ghosal (Times News Network) writes:

This wedding season, the going’s been good for branded jewellery players who’ve witnessed a spurt in diamond jewellery sales. With consumers increasingly inclined towards diamond jewellery, major players like Tanishq, Orra and Adora are targeting 24-50% sales growth in this year’s wedding season over last year.

Though none of the branded jewellery companies were willing to share their sales projections for the wedding season in actual quantitative terms, all confirmed that diamond jewellery sales had indeed shown a significant jump. “Gold will continue to be the major player in the Indian jewellery market. But we’ve noticed that more and more people are leaning towards diamonds. During this wedding season, Tanishq is expecting a 40-50% growth compared to the previous year,” CK Venkatraman, chief operating officer, Tanishq told ET.

P Sengupta, manager (East), DTC (Diamond Trading Company), the wedding season accounts for about two-thirds of the total diamond jewellery sales for the year. “We are looking to register a growth of 20-25% in the diamond jewellery sales over last year. In the East, this growth will be up to 30%,” said Mr Sengupta.

Mr Sengupta attributed this marked shift to several reasons, among them the increased stocking of diamond jewellery by retailers and a greater thrust on advertising. This apart, another reason for many brides choosing to include diamond jewellery as part of their trousseau is the perception about diamond jewellery being more trendy, eye-catching and more wearable.

Incidentally, prime movers in the diamond jewellery category are the diamond engagement and wedding rings as well as earrings. However, even the Rs 80,000 to Rs 3 lakh segment is doing well. “We have seen a 62% growth in the above-Rs 75,000 category of diamond wedding jewellery, while overall sales have shown a 46% growth over the previous corresponding period,” said Vijay Jain, CEO, Orra.

Prabir Chatterjee, MD of jewellery brand Adora, said the shift from gold to diamonds was particularly noticeable in the basic jewellery segment.

More info @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/808517.cms

No comments: