Yeah, but before you go to jewellery, I want to share that our quarter two growth that we reported to the stock exchanges for all the consumer businesses was 25%, right? So 25% growth in a quarter where festive is slightly shifted, I think, is fabulous and nothing to complain about. And jewellery also at 22% growth, all brands put together, is actually very good.
Buyer growth being in the mid, you know, mid-single digits is linked to two things. One is there was a decline in buyer growth as well as a coins sales value, right? Because investment demand for coins slowed down. For the first time in so many quarters, we saw a decline in coins sales, which means investor-oriented consumers were waiting to see where gold prices will settle. There were multiple mixed views in the market whether gold prices will come down, whether customs duties will be normalised, you know, what will happen to the dollar and so on and so forth. So that customer has been a little cagey, and therefore we can see that coin demand has been low, and that also contributes to the buyers because coins are smaller denominations.
The second area could be in the gold jewellery side, where there has been a shift between the two quarters. You know, festive shift is clearly there. This year it's in October and going all the way to November. Last year it was September to October. So there is a shift, including Puja sales, etc. So these two factors contribute nothing much to really talk about, other than the fact, look at it at an overall level. At the end of festive, we will get the complete picture.
Right. And this moderation in gold coin sales, we have seen coming in the top four to five players across the industry. Do you believe that this could pick up as Dhanteras, Diwali, you know, in quarter three?
It may, it may not. I don't know. Depends on how customers behave. Frankly, gold coins is not the business we are in, right? That's just something which consumers want, so we also sell gold coins. It's the lowest-margin business, and it's something which... We are in the business of actually creating beautiful jewellery which add on the woman.
Sure. Every precious jewellery in India has an investment angle to it because people expect it to be a store of value. But coins is more like gifting and auspicious purchase, and they, you know, keep it at home. A lot of it is also investment.
Right. So because of this volatility that we are seeing in gold prices, are you seeing more demand shifting towards studded? Your studded performance this time has been very solid as well. So you believe lightweight diamond and a mix of gold and diamond is the next trend that's going to play out in the jewellery segment?
So actually, studded has been doing well for several quarters. Right. We have seen higher buyer growth as well as higher value growths in studded over the last maybe three, four quarters. And I think it's to do with gold prices being a little high. Therefore, the gold jewellery growth in terms of buyers has been a little muted, especially in the sub-50,000, sub-1 lakh. You know, what can you get in sub-50,000? Will be some two, three grams. Not even that. Not even that. Right. So I think the catalogue has also shifted for most people. And maybe one way to counter it has been by offering lower caratage. But in plain gold, to go below 18 carat is rare. In studded, you can go to 14 carat, 9 carat, because, you know, that customer is used to that. But by and large, if you ask me, it's not about people shifting in as much as this growth has continued, and studded, the gold jewellery and gold coins in the lower denomination have moderated.
Right? So therefore, it looks like it is shifted.
But I think it's not that the customer who was buying plain gold jewellery below 50,000 is now suddenly started buying studded. That would be a wrong decoding.
No, that would make sense also. And let's talk about diamonds since we are talking about studded. How is Beyond doing? What has the reception to your early launches been so far? And how are you looking at balancing the demand for natural diamond versus lab-grown? Where are we on that debate? Because that debate seems to be like an eternal debate. And you are for both?
Yeah. So I don't believe that we should be thinking about it as one balancing the other.
I think we are getting caught up in a false debate. I would say it's a wrong debate. A debate is when something will grow at the cost of something else. That is not the case. India is such a huge market. It is such under-penetrated for diamond jewellery. I mean, natural diamonds and lab put together is less than 15% of penetration. So the headroom for growth in natural diamonds as well as even for lab-grown is very, very high, right? Especially with discretionary, you know, incomes as well as spending going up significantly. India is witnessing a very big jump in buying power over a period of time, and with that, it is naturally expected that diamond jewellery becomes more and more penetrated.
Natural diamonds have been growing at a very, very healthy double digits that you all have been seeing. Beyond for us has been a start which is quite encouraging. The first only a couple of stores have been around for a month or more, more than a couple of months, which is one in Bombay and one in Noida. But we have now added five more. So we are at seven stores right now, and there are another four or five which will come up in the next one month or so. I think that's when we can draw meaningful conclusions. So far, the first two stores are very encouraging.
And things are playing out as per our assumptions. We are seeing a mix of consumers. Those who are non—let's say they are largely gold buyers who are also buying into studded for the first time. And there are also people who have bought natural, also buying this and then going back and buying natural also, from whatever data basis. So I don't think it's easy to categorize customers so neatly as the way data sometimes might throw up.
Understood. And would you say the demand for lab-grown diamonds or the understanding around lab-grown diamonds as a sector is now increasing in the country?
