Bangalore-based C Krishniah Chetty & Sons (CKC) launched the Tolkowsky collection at their mammoth flagship signature store, spanning 14,000 square feet, while announcing an exclusive partnership. CKC has been in the diamond business for five generations and the Tolkowsky family for seven. Defining the partnership as a ‘marriage’ of sorts, both business tycoons, C Vinod Hayagriv and Jean Paul Tolkowsky were, however, tight lipped about the pecuniary details of the contract. JCK India caught with Tolkowsky for an exclusive chat. On Starting Out
I started retailing in Asia 17 years back when I was a young man manufacturing the ideal cut and doing exactly what Marcel Tolkowsky always did. I met a young Japanese retailer who said: “I want to open your store in Japan.” He said he had learnt about our family history at the GIA laboratories during his college education and since then had it on his mind to open a Tolkowsky store.
At that time my father was actively involved in the business and I was scared to use my family name because if I didn’t succeed I would maybe spoil seven generations of family business and I was really scared of doing that. I decided to go ahead with my plan to do business with him, but safely use the name of my company Excelco instead of Tolkowsky.
The first Tokowsky store in Japan was called ‘Excelco Diamond Japan’ and all the products in the store were Tolkowsky products and so more or less like the CKC store where all the diamonds used in the store are Tolkowsky. Today we are the most preferred brand in Japan for diamond engagement rings, as a gift of love and about to launch our 55th store there.
Romancing the Indian Market
Retailing in India is not something that I prepared in advance. I’m here because I believe it looked traditionally surreal. You have such artistic values, such a heritage especially looking at the past, where you’re looking at gold and colored stones. Talking about importance of spirit you know that spirit of stones and jewelry is not just about buying a bejeweled product, we’re passing that spirit of that diamond that is born a hundred million years ago. We’re talking care of crafting it, taking care of putting it in a piece of jewelry for our customer. The Indian market is ready for a diamond revolution– their aspirations to (abide to) European values, fashion and brands is their preparedness.So, that’s what made it easy for us to see and make sure that we want to be in India.
I have some experience of retail in Asia, but it’s the first time that we’re coming with Tolkowsky in retail on the first page and I’m a little less scared this time around. That’s because it’s a perfect match of Krishniah Chetty and Tolkowsky – both families have inherited the diamond business from their families. You won’t find another Tolkowsky nor another Krishniah Chetty.
The two families who’re in charge of their businesses are not just a brand name but part of an ancient tradition in beauty, value, service and quality assurance. The deal is the hard work of Emmanuel Wheitman, Director, Excelco (Asia) Ltd, who manages the Asian Pacific realm and is in charge of the South East Asian office. I know him since the last 38 years—it’s like we grew up together. One day he organized a meeting with an Indian retailer—not that we were looking at opening a retail store in India especially or that we were busy globally.
I met up with Vinod Hayagriv who was in the city of Hong Kong to look for furniture for his new store (the 14,000 sq ft store in Bangalore where we launched our collection for the first time in India). This was three years ago. The table for the meeting was set. After 10 minutes of interaction I knew that this was going to be my partner in business. In fact this was exactly what I was looking at. It was strange because when you meet your husband to be you just know that your husband is the right person. So that was exactly how it was.
Then we met once in Bangalore, then again in Bangkok and then we didn’t feel the need to meet. Since we knew exactly that we share the common values, the heritage, the tradition that need to reach perfection, to reach out to the customers with my art. With a store like that any brand would want to kill to have their brand in that store. It’s a great opportunity for me to be associated with Krishniah Chetty.
“For better and for worse”
Our relationship is more than just a contract on paper. You can call it a joint venture or whatever you may want. One has to call it something for contracts. You have two families with the same set of values. It’s something I will never spoil. If you’re looking at business, it may go up and down. Tolkowsky has been in business from seven generations. We plan to be together for good times and the bad times. And I am very confident about the decision of the partnership and you know what my business could grow like that even beyond India. We will not work with any other jeweler in India except Krishniah Chetty.
My mind is set on CKC and I also do not have the time for any more partnerships. Now we have just started off and within the next six months I need to open many stores locally. We’re both lucky that our businesses are fairing well and we’re not looking only at balance sheets but looking closely at our customers. I’m looking for a partnership that will be forever so if we continue —so if it’s the last seven generations that we’ve been around, then we’re looking at the next seven generations. CKC and Tolkowsky will work together and start from this store. And when CKC will walk to the different cities in the country of course Tolkowsky will also walk along. This is the start and there is a possibility for much more now.
Expansion Plans
We’re looking at the GCC, China, Hong Kong and South East Asia. We’re working in the US and we’re working with independent jewelers and small chains there. We’re working on it in the United Kingdom as we speak, and continue to be in vogue in Japan and we’re planning to open an additional 10 stores next year in Japan. Since Japan is really a mature market so you can imagine by next year we’re going to have 65 stores there. We have stores in every city there with four to five stores in Tokyo alone.
Collections
The collection you see is the international collection. There’s the Tumbling Collection, the Signature collection among other solitaire pieces. We work in each market with a localized collection for India we’re working with C. Krishnaiah and Chetty.
The designers of CKC & Sons are working on our products and coming up with our collections. So, it’s not that once we design and we forget about it, we continue the process. Right now even as we speak our designers in Europe are conceiving newer designs. The same applies here for our localized collections. That’s how we come up with current designs every three to four months.