‘We will be foraying into the US with 3 showrooms’

From starting its first jewellery showroom in 1993, Thrissur-headquartered Kalyan Jewellers has come a long way to become one of the largest jewellery manufacturers and distributors in India.

Apart from having its presence across the country, and West Asia, the jewellery brand is all set to open showrooms in the US. In an interview with Uma Kannan of Deccan Herald, T S Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director, Kalyan Jewellers, talks about their expansion and IPO plans. Excerpts:

What kind of response have you received from your annual sales campaign held from July 7-17?

The annual sales went on well as per our target, and every year we run different offers. This year apart from other discounts, we offered our customers 100% value on exchange of old gold. Our annual sales will be during the same period and customers can walk in and grab their favourite jewellery.

How many showrooms do you have at present? Are you planing to increase the same?

At present, we have 129 showrooms, and we are growing our footprint 8%-10% every year. If we go in that phase, we will be opening 250 stores in five years.

We opened five showrooms in Karnataka alone in one day last year, and we have major expansion plan for the State.

Karnataka contributes 10% to our total revenue, and it is the third most important market. We have 13 showrooms in Karnataka and we will be opening a new one in Bengaluru next month.

Apart from the South, how well are you doing in the rest of the country and in West Asia? Are you planning to expand to other countries as well?

We are present in almost all States - Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

We will be opening one showroom in Assam and Jharkhand soon and a showroom in Bihar is in our pipeline. In Delhi alone we have eight showrooms. We have 32 showrooms in West Asia and we cater to the Indian population there. Apart from West Asia, we are looking at the US market.

We are planning to open three new showrooms there with an investment of Rs 100 crore. We aim to target the Indian diaspora in the region and these showrooms will be launched during this fiscal.

How was your growth in FY18, and what’s your projection for this fiscal?

We had a very flat growth in the first quarter ended June 2018, compared with the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal, as we had an excellent result that time as gold price and consumer behaviour were bullish. This fiscal, we are bullish and by end of this fiscal, we are expecting 5%-6% growth. Our turnover in the last fiscal was Rs 10,525 crore.

We recently launched ‘Muhurat’, the wedding collection that is specially curated to meet the specific cultural and design requirements of every Indian bride. This collection further emphasises on Kalyan’s hyper-local product strategy.

Apart from this, Kalyan also offers its patrons in-house brands like - Tejasvi, which is the Polki jewellery line; Mudhra, a fine collection of handcrafted antique jewellery; Nimah or the heritage inspired temple style jewellery; Glo, which is the dancing diamond series; Ziah, which is the illusion setting diamond collection; Anokhi, the uncut diamond line; Apoorva, which is the special occasions diamond collection; Antara, the bridal diamond jewellery; Hera, the daily wear diamonds; and Rang, which is precious stone jewellery.

How is the jewellery industry in India at present after GST and Nirav Modi episodes?

If you take GST (Goods and Services Tax), it is intended to help branded players in the jewellery industry. There has been a shift from the unorganised to organised due to GST. The organised jewellery market is just 20% of the industry, and the rest are unorganised players. As far as Nirav Modi, it is entirely different. We don’t do any export and we are 100% retail brand, dealing with B2C.

How about your online sales?

Only 1%-2% of our total revenues come from online. Online market is different from retail. We have acquired online jewellery firm Candere and it augments our presence in online space. Earlier there was no concept of gifting jewellery online, but now the general trend that we are seeing is people are gifting jewellery to others and ordering them online.

When are you planning to file IPO papers?

IPO is something that we are planning and it is in our mind.

What is Kalyan’s vision and future plan?

Our immediate plan is to launch our 100th showroom in India thus taking the total count to 132. Apart from this, we will also launch 10 more showrooms, of which three will be in the US. Our long term plan is to be present in all markets where gold jewellery is culturally relevant and appreciated.