India’s expected surge of rich consumers is driving the jewelry unit of Indian conglomerate Tata Group to triple its Zoya-branded luxury stores by 2027.
“There is a lot of latent demand for luxury from India and high-net-worth individuals are going to explode,” Ajoy Chawla, chief executive officer of the jewelry division at Titan Co, said in an interview. “This is just the beginning for luxury.”
Titan, India’s biggest jeweler, gets about 90 percent of its revenue from the sale of jewelry and the rest from watches, eyewear and perfumes. It has four jewelry brands under its umbrella: flagship Tanishq, working women-focused Mia, online sales portal Caratlane and Zoya, which is aimed at rich customers.
Expanding the number of Zoya stores to 15 in the next five years would cost about 300 million rupees (US$3.64 million) per boutique, Chawla said.
The company also plans to add Zoya galleries within select Tanishq stores, aiming to more than double those to as many as 15 by the end of next year, he said.
Revenue at the brand has climbed as much as five times from sales figures before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company expects this “aggressive pace” of growth to continue, he said.
India is already the world’s second-biggest market for gold used in jewelry and demand is unlikely to waver with a report by Knight Frank showing the number of ultra-high-net-worth people with assets of US$30 million or more growing 11 percent last year from a year earlier.
That figure is expected to jump by about 39 percent in 2026, while individuals with wealth of at least US$1 million are forecast to surge by about 77 percent during the five-year period, the report said.
Titan is also aiming to ramp up overseas expansion in Zoya in a bid to build a global luxury brand.
“We have forayed overseas with Tanishq in the Middle East and US recently, and we will use that experience to plan a global move for Zoya,” Chawla said. “Ultimately, the plan is to create a global brand with an Indian soul.”
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