By Vinay Kamath Comments READ LATER It’s a rainy morning in Chennai, unusual during the peak heat of May. Ajoy Chawla, the CEO of Tanishq, is on a quick trip for a market visit to the city. In this interview, Chawla talks about the different brands that Tanishq has, the growth and opportunities and the impact of the rising gold prices on jewellery sales.

Edited excerpts: Mia was born as a sub-brand of Tanishq and remains so; you will have Mia in Tanishq stores and in some Mia stores you will have a complementary offering of Tanishq. The customer sees Mia as a younger arm of Tanishq, not as an independent brand, targeting Gen Z, for their everyday needs. It’s much more about fashion and style, a lot more 14 carat jewellery; so, what started off as a product line has evolved as a sub-brand and customers see it as such and not as an independent one.

In a Tanishq store we may not be able to showcase the full offerings of Mia, maybe just 50 per cent. Mia is largely a sub-₹75,000 offering. The fact that it’s a Tanishq brand is good enough.

The Mia customer is not necessarily looking for trust and assurance from Tatas, whereas the Tanishq customer is. Zoya is an independent brand. A handful of large Tanishq stores will have a Zoya gallery; which is a shop-in-shop, it will have a separate ambience to it.

The product language and customer profile are certainly different; the brand idea is different. It has not been conceived as a sub-brand. In a Zoya store we won’t have a Ta.