With the festival season around the corner, a lot of action is taking place in the Rs 1,00,000 crore Indian jewellery retail industry. Branded diamond jewellery makers are foraying into manufacturing of coloured stones and gold jewellery to enter the daily wear jewellery segment apart from expanding their retail formats. Moreover, consumer durable companies are entering into co-branded strategic tie-ups with diamond jewellery makers for promotions.
Mumbai-based Fine Jewellery – a multinational enterprise with business interests in the US, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Far East – with about 110 retail outlets in India, is planning to foray into manufacturing of colour stones and gold jewellery and enter the daily wear jewellery segment. According to Sohail Kothari, director-Fine Jewellery, ?The new products may be launched under the ?Nirvana? brand name. With our existing brand comprising ?Nirvana? and ?Akansha?, plans are also on the anvil to expand to 200 outlets of ?Nirvana? in the shop-in-shop and standalone formats in the next two years.?
Delhi-based Archies Ltd, which currently retails 10 ?Stupid Cupid? standalone jewellery outlets and 110 shop-in-shop formats, too is planning to foray into coloured stones jewellery to tap the daily wear jewellery segment soon. Nilesh Chheda, finance controller-Archies Ltd, told FE, ?We are planning to expand Stupid Cupid standalone jewellery galleries to 50 and shop-in-shops within malls to 500 in the next two to three years.?
Tanishq, the jewellery business group of Titan Industries Ltd, is also planning to expand its retail outlets to 110 from the present 94 stores in 66 towns in 2007-08, in both standalone and shop-in-shop formats.
Its competitor Gitanjali Group – with leading branded exclusive outlets of World of D?Damas, Gili, Nakshatra, Asmi, Sangini, Collection G, Gold Expressions and Sets & Solitaires – is looking at expanding the number of outlets and launching new promotions.
According to industry experts, the replacement market for branded jewellery is growing and the pace of growth is similar to that of the consumer durables replacement market. As a result, jewellery makers are scouting to partner with consumer durable companies for launching new consumer promotions this festival season. ?Fine Jewellery is planning to team up with durable companies for launching new gift offers and schemes on the purchase of durable products.? added Kothari.
Our association with Philips Electronics India for free gift schemes between March to June 2007 to push off season jewellery sales has taken off well. Hence, now we are scouting for more such partners in the consumer durable segment. We will finalise this next week,?