TN outshines India in platinum market with 35 per cent growth

The growth of the platinum jewellery market in the city (for PGI’s strategic partners) exceeds the overall market growth. The spokesperson also speaks about the opportunity for growth in the organised retail markets in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of TN. Vaishali Banerjee, MD, PGI (India) tells us, “Tamil Nadu, along with the other southern states are very strong markets for platinum. 

And Chennai was the city where we did our test marketing for platinum, way back in 2006 till 2008. Some of the key programmes, involving bridal gifting was tested with GRT; we tested men’s jewellery with VBJ; rings were also tested in this market. 

It’s no surprise that the Chennai market has grown at 35 per cent, for the key strategic partners, a rate faster than the overall market growth for strategic partners which was 28 per cent, and 21 per cent for the overall market. There are close to 554 stores in South India spread across 106 cities, of which 78 partner stores are in Chennai.” 

She adds, “The retailers in South India also made a transition to organised retail faster than the rest of the country. Single store retailers also moved into the chain stores format regionally and nationally. In this region, we have also seen strong players pushing platinum into Tier 2 cities as well. 

Retail sales wise, 50 per cent of the distribution and fabrication is in this region, which is around 5 to 5.5 tonnes here. So, the market is quite strong on that front. The target demographic is of course the age group 18-35, where we are seeing an encouraging traction from the men’s jewellery segment as well, with demand for platinum wedding bands also rising.”