Aniket PujariTitan Co., the country’s largest jewellery retailer by revenue, plans to drive adoption and consumption of natural and lab-grown diamond jewellery as prices remain volatile for the precious stones and gold.
Titan’s jewellery division needs to grow all of its arms to “really drive adoption and consumption of diamond jewellery and overall growth of the portfolio, consumer confidence and love for the brands,” chief executive officer (CEO) Arun Narayan told Mint on Friday. Apart from India, the company has 30 stores in the Middle East, Singapore, and North America, and plans to grow in these markets, he said.
Only about 12% of the jewellery sold in India is diamond and the majority of the purchases still focus on gold, showing a clear scope for growth. “Women are clearly seeing lab-grown (diamonds) as something which is an indulgence, something they can buy frequently without any guilt, and they’re seeing natural diamonds as something very special which is reserved and kept for special occasions to mark certain milestones, ” he said.
Tanishq has been launching Diamond Expertise Centres in its showrooms to authenticate diamonds, hoping to mirror the market trust that its gold karatmeters once established. The management plans to increase the number of such centres to 200 by March, from 50 currently.
Meeting at the flagship store in Andheri, which is situated opposite the newly launched lab-grown diamond (LGD) outlet, Narayan said Indian consumers look at LGDs as an “and” or additional choice, not “either-or, like in the US”.
Titan launched its lab-grown diamond initiative beYon in January. “We believe Titan’s foray potentially plugs any leakage of customers seeking LGD and widens its total addressable market (TAM), which in turn could aid the company in establishing the brand at a nascent stage of category development,” analysts at Nomura said at the time of the launch.
De Beers, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds, cut its official prices for the first time in more than a year in January, amid soft Chinese luxury spending and pressure from US tariffs.
At the same time, following almost a decade of sustained price erosion, the LGD market has started to show signs of stabilizing in early 2026, according to industry reports.
This price volatility in gold and diamonds has increased innovation in retailers like Tanishq. The company has launched 9-carat diamond jewellery with Mia and has had 14-karat pieces since day one, said Narayan. “So that learning now we are bringing into Tanishq. We have 14-karat diamond jewellery in Tanishq.”
Titan’s jewellery business has been a key driver, growing 41% year-on-year in the December quarter, driven by higher average selling prices of gold. Spot gold declined 2.5% to $4,838.81 per ounce on Thursday.
