Gadgets will compete with us but that doesn’t mean that jewellery is the second priority

Sunil Nayak, CEO Reliance Jewels, talks to Samit Bhatta, publisher, The Retail Jeweller Magazine, on the future of the jewellery industry and their new collection that has been grabbing eyeballs.

You have launched a new collection called Rannkaar in gold and diamonds with an inspiration from Gujarat. Can you tell us about the launch? You have done three such collections before. What has been the impact?

Three years back, we took the decision of carving out our own roadmap to our own growth plan and as the USP, we said since this is a category that works on emotions, you need to build own base. Customers buy on festivals and occasions. If not for lifetime remembrance, they do for the years to come. We build on emotions. We don’t believe on working on the price although that can become a pleasant surprise for the customers. They should get a memorable experience while selecting the product and shopping for it. We also felt that India is rich in culture and heritage. Every major occasion, especially Akshay Tritiya and Dhanteras sees bigger collections that will showcase the heritage, culture and art of one of the communities in India. Keeping that in mind, we started launching the different collections showcasing a corner of the country. We have launched the 5^th collection in the series called Rannkaar, showing the heritage of Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. We feel that by showcasing that jewellery, consumers will continue to see these parts through our jewellery. It will be available in all our 121 standalone showrooms, especially the bigger pieces. For our 170 shops in shops, the smaller pieces will be the highlight.

Last year, India was expected to do well in terms of jewellery. It was the first choice of millennials despite the price rise and the World Gold Council’s “You are Gold” Campaign hit really well. India imported 782 tonnes of gold. What is the future of jewellery in India, and especially that for Reliance Jewels?

As you rightly said, we have been launching collections for 3 years and that itself confirms our confidence in the industry. The first wave started in March 2020, and people more or less wrote the industry off. Jewellery was said to be the last priority. We had the same opinion. Two years down the line, we see that the last 2 years have been the best in history of Reliance Jewels. It gives us the confidence that though the consumer may be buying with emotions, this still remains among the priority buying lists for them. Gadgets will compete with us but jewellery is not the second priority. So, there is a lot of confidence for the industry and corporate players like us think that this will continue in the near future.

Courtesy: Retail Jeweller India News