Straight Answers

Vijay Jain, CEO, Intergold, on the changing trends in diamond jewellery. What do you expect from the Hyderabad market? Hyderabad is a city of romance, and nawabs. At the same time it is fast growing from an economic point of view and offers the perfect blend for a jewellery business like ours. We have been planning our entry into Hyderabad for almost a year and have high expectations from the market. How have the trends in jewellery changed over the years? Our research has shown the Indian woman has come on her own, and it is only in the absence of newer options that she keeps going to the traditional jewellers. People are looking for quality and style. Basically what we require is jewellery that is relevant today's environment, that is a blend of Indian and western styles. Gone are the days of locker jewellery. Today's woman wants jewellery that she can wear on a regular basis and quality that she can trust. But newer jewellery styles might draw only a younger market? That's not necessarily true. We target the age group of 25 years and upward. And we are specifically also targeting the older generation. If the market is studied segment wise then there is enough scope to cater to all segments, from the youngsters and career women to the older generations. For instance, for the younger crowds we have the denim diamonds, for working women we have a best selling line called Career Carats and for the older generation we have a Spiritual line. The basic idea or theme of the jewellery remains Indian but it is stylised in keeping in mind the international trends. Hyderabad has seen the launch of a number of jewellery stores in the last few months. Where does Intergold position itself ? Jewellery is a 40,000 crore market in the country and the organised space in it is only two per cent. In fact, we are the only people to deal exclusively in diamonds and the world's largest diamond manufacturing company. The south as a whole is a very exciting market for us. We have already made successful forays into Chennai and Coimbatore and we have observed that the people in the south seem to understand diamonds and are into jewellery.