De Beers Forevermark to expand presence in South India

Diamond brand, De Beers Forevermark plans, to open 20 more boutique stores by next year. 25 per cent of these stores will be established in South India, as the brand sees immense potential in the growing number of metros, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in the region.

De Beers Forevermark currently has two exclusive stores in Bangalore and Hyderabad and around 100 doors in South India, including the ones where it partners with select authorised retailers who share the same brand ethos as De Beers Forevermark. Overall, it currently has 10 boutique stores and 270 doors in India in 56 markets including urban, Tier 1 and metro markets, as well as in Tier 2 and 3 locations where it partners with select authorised retailers.

Fast-growing market

India is the brand’s fastest growing markets, surpassing U.S and China, in terms of volume. The volume of De Beers Forevermark diamonds that the company drives through Indian partners is said to be much higher than in other parts of the world.

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“South India is the most important region for us, in our Indian endeavour. A few years back, our research showed that the fastest growing segment of diamond purchase was the self purchase segment for women, which is women buying diamonds for themselves. Not necessarily for a wedding or a boyfriend buying for a girlfriend as an expression of love. But the expression of women being financially independent and taking their own decisions. In our research of South Indian consumers as well, we found a perfect fit of such financially independent women buying diamonds for themselves. And that’s the expression of our new Forevermark Avaanti collection as well,” Sachin Jain, Managing Director, De Beers India, told BusinessLine .

Online-offline hybrid

De Beers had started its e-commerce vertical about two-three months back. Jain believes that going forward, retail will be a hybrid of online and offline. The brand’s online channel is getting a positive response from Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets as well, in addition to metros and Tier 1 cities.

Further, the company sources its diamonds from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada. De Beers Forevermark grading process takes place at one of its global laboratories in Surat, India; Maidenhead, UK; and Antwerp, Belgium.

Sustainability goals

The parent company of De Beers Forevermark has announced 12 ambitious sustainability goals to be achieved by 2030 as part of its ‘Building Forever’ vision. The vision is to focus on four pillars — leading ethical practices across industry, partnering for thriving communities, protecting the natural world, and accelerating equal opportunity. De Beers also plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

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In an effort to meet these sustainability goals and protect the natural world, the brand has recently partnered with National Geographic. Under this partnership, the intention of De Beers is to work on the water systems and revive the ecology of Okavango Delta in Botswana, which faces a huge challenge in getting access to freshwater, because of various reasons such as commercial farming, construction of dams and so on.

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