CNBC-TV18 understand that for the last three years the De Beers brand has been growing by 50 percent in the Indian diamonds markets and this is way higher than what they have been doing in the global markets. Manisha Gupta spoke to Stephen Lussier Executive VP-Marketing at De Beers Group to discuss their outlook for 2019.

Lussier said, "2018 was a good year for Foever Mark all over the world. We grew again last year around 6 percent over the year before but what was amazing is that India was the driver for us of growth. We were extraordinarily successful last year in India and saw growth upwards of 50 percent on the year before and something we have repeated now 6 years in a row. So, exceptionally good year for Forever Mark in India."

On their outlook for 2019 he said, "When we look at overall situation in India, for the last 2-3 years it hasn't been an easy time for the jewellery industry with events like demonetisation and new regulations around tax impacting on the sentiment in the sector. However despite all of that there has been no barrier to the growth for Forever Mark. One of the things about the world today is that it is a volatile and unpredictable place anywhere in the world, whether it is the discussions between China and the US over trade which is impacting sentiment, whether it is Brexit in the UK, it is hard to predict the world. India though I cannot be anything but extraordinarily pleased with the success that we have seen in sales of our brand. As a result we are very bullish again for 2019. We are focusing very much on sales in this key period which does coincide with the elections which makes it a little bit harder to get your marketing message across but nonetheless we found that our message resonates so well with consumers now that there is no reason why we cannot continue to see very strong double digit growth that we have now seen 6 years in a row for the Indian market."

First Published:Mar 9, 2019 5:00 PM IST