#RJIF2024: Jewellers seek improvement of consumer connect, nurturing of Tier III and Tier IV markets for profitability

High-power panel of retailers addresses concerns in the way of profitability, ranging from dearth of merchandise management experts, proper assessment of consumer segments, improving processes including back-end integration and more, while Dev Shetty of FURA Gems emphasizes profitability factor secured by coloured gemstones  

Mumbai: India’s large population is giving a huge demographic dividend, and coupled with high GDP growth, it promises to facilitate a huge gain in India’s per capita income, which bodes well for all sectors including jewellery. Probing the profitability factor for legacy jewellery brands across the country, Soma Bhatta, Editor and Publisher of Retail Jeweller Magazine, moderated a session titled ‘Envisioning opportunities: Growing industry trends and new ideas for profitable change’ at the Retail Jeweller India Forum 2024 held recently in Mumbai. The panelists included Darpan Anand, MD of Punjab Jewels, Saumitra Saraf, Director of Aisshpra Gems and Jewels, Mitesh Khimji, Director, Khimji Jewellers, Dr C. Vinod Hayagriv, MD and Director of C. Krishniah Chetty Group of Jewellers, Vikas Kataria, MD, DP Jewel Line, and Dev Shetty, Founder & CEO of FURA Gems. 

As the growing middle class gets more aspirational, Dr C. Vinod Hayagriv highlighted the need for a deeper assessment of consumers from various age groups. “In India, the consumer age bracket starts from 12-14 years to 80 years. Such a diverse group throws up a challenge in the variety of merchandise mix,” he said. Jewellery, like several other luxury verticals in India, lacks trained merchandise management experts, he observed, adding that the bottomline can be improved if every brand adheres to cost accounting of all its operations.

Vikas Kataria spoke about the 25-fold growth journey of DP Jewel Line from the IPO listing route in 2017 to NSE in 2020. “We started from Ratlam where there is not much competition. We thought of expanding to neighbouring Tier III and Tier IV cities which are untapped markets with good demand. More than 100 new smart cities are about to be made, and that’s where the opportunity lies,” Kataria said.

Congratulating Kataria on his initiative, Saumitra Saraf spoke of the contrast between the global outlook of jewellers in metros and that of gold-centric jewellers in smaller cities. “We don’t have the filtered clientele of national chain stores. We’ve expanded in Tier IV cities where the population is as low as 50,000. This year, we’ll add 4-5 stores in Tier IV cities. Periodically, it’s also important for us to have presence in bigger cities, as that is the zone of influence,” he maintained.

Odisha has come a long way from an economic downturn to prosperity, and as per Mitesh Khimji, the State has emerged to be the highest investment destination in 2022-23, which has also increased buying power. “We’ve been jewellers since 1936. Odisha has primarily been a yellow gold market and the percentage of diamonds and coloured stones five years earlier was just 1-2%. Every jewellery brand thinks about increasing market-share, but at times a brand needs to pause and reflect on improving its processes as well. That helps the brand in the long run,” Khimji added.  

While discussing profitability, Darpan Anand said that any business survives to make profit and a recent survey by the brand has established Punjab Jewels as the highest profitable jewellery company in their region. “A few years back, many jewellery brands were popping up in our vicinity and everyone was offering lower prices. As a business, you’ll have to ensure profit and growth. From the smallest to the biggest companies, it is always about profit. Understanding the back-end helped my brand in this direction,” Anand said.

Addressing concerns regarding profitability, Dev Shetty positioned precious coloured gemstones as a reliable mode of investment that secures the bottomline for retailers. “With FURA Gems, consistent supply of coloured gemstones will help retailers increase bottomline from single-digit to double-digit growth. Our experience with China Stone as a sightholder for rubies was phenomenal, as they wanted to double the produce after selling the first lot of FURA rubies in a month. For that to happen in India, I request jewellers not to add coloured gemstones as part of the making charge, but to sell them as separate products,” Shetty emphasized.

Written by Ashwin Bose

Retail Jeweller India Exclusive