Vasanth Nangia, Chief Executive Officer, Oyzterbay, is the dynamic visionary behind the newly launched jewellery outlet in Bangalore. A former top executive of Tanishq, Nangia has set out, along with five other former Tanishq professionals, to create ripples in the Indian jewellery industry. A hands on manager, Nangia is an Economics graduate from renowned St. Stephen's College, Delhi and a MBA from IIM Calcutta. Nangia, who oversees the whole functioning of Oyzterbay, has rich and varied managerial skills spanning over 20 years.

He has served as General Manager, International Operations, for Titan International and became the company's (jewellery) Vice President. For Titan's jewellery wing, Tanishq, Vasanth Nangia has achieved considerable results. On the strength of his rich experience, he launched Oyzterbay at Bangalore. Oyzterbay is a new generation jewellery chain in India. In an interview to bangalorebest.com, he spoke about his future plans for the company.

What has been the response from consumers to your new range of jewellery Oyzterbay?
The response is much more than what we expected. We find a lot of enthusiasm among the youth for our range of jewellery.

What is so unique about your products?
The uniqueness of our products is the price range. All jewellery is priced below Rs 5,000. We are catering mainly to the younger generation and our jewellery is basically for casual wear. We have jewellery in silver also.

Why did you choose to target the youth segment alone?
We targeted the youth since nobody, so far, has targeted this segment of customers. But it is not just the youth that we have targeted. Ideal gift jewellery which suits all ages is available with us.

Do you have ornaments for males as well?
No, we have no jewellery exclusively for males, with the exception of a range of rings.

Generally, Indians prefer traditional 22 and 24 carat gold ornaments. Do you think your 18 carat gold will have a good market in India?
We have used all carats of gold for ornaments, not just 18 carat gold. We have designs in 22-carat and 24-carat gold.

What turnover do you project for the coming year?
By the end of this year, our target is to reach a turnover of Rs 25 crores.

You are going to face a lot of competition from strong jewellery industrialists in Bangalore. How will you deal with it?
We face no competition in the segment of youth consumers since nobody has tapped this category of customers. As I mentioned earlier, our jewellery is priced below Rs 5,000, a price that is well suited to the youth segment.

Is Bangalore the first city where your showroom was opened? What about expansion plans?
Yes, Bangalore is the first city where we have launched our showroom. We have planned to open up at least 50 showrooms in all major Indian cities by the end of three or four years. In the first phase, about 11 showrooms will be opened.

Consumers' tastes change rapidly. How will your company cater to the changing demands and tastes of customers?
We have an in-house designing team who keep a vigil on the changing fashions in jewellery. However, now itself we have more than a 1,000 variety of product designs.

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Y. Rama Mohan   |