Reliance-Tiffany partnership in India wins the right approval

The Reliance-Tiffany partnership in India will allow Tiffany & Co to offset subdued demand in US and Europe, says data and analytics company GlobalData.

The US-based luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co formally announced last week it was forming a joint venture with India’s Reliance Brands Limited (RBL), a part of the Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), to open a line of stores in India. That move was widely predicted earlier.

Shagun Sachdeva, consumer insights analyst at GlobalData, says India is the fastest-growing luxury market in the Asia-Pacific region, expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14.2 percent between 2017 and 2022, to reach US$7billion by then.

“The projected healthy growth can be attributed to the positive economic outlook, growing younger upper-middle-class population coupled with growing brand-consciousness, and the increasing popularity of the online channel for luxury shopping.”

Sachdeva said Tiffany & Co, famous for its diamond engagement rings and famous blue boxes, has been trying to enter the Indian market for a long time.

“By leveraging Reliance’s long-standing brand presence and product positioning, it will be able to expand globally and offset the subdued demand in the US and Europe.

“After the deployment of omni-channel model and the introduction of the iconic British toy retailer Hamleys in India earlier this year, the latest move by Reliance to open Tiffany stores in Delhi later this year and in Mumbai in 2020 through a joint venture is in line with its strategy to bring the best-in-class products to the emerging Indian luxury market,” she said.

“It provides a unique opportunity for Reliance to bolster its consumer-focused units, retail, and telecoms, to match the strength of its leading oil and gas business.”