The Hindu Business Line : Forever Precious sees sparkling market

FOREVER Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Ltd (FPJDL), an associate company of Su-Raj Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd, is setting up a gold jewellery manufacturing plant at Ahmedabad.

Su-Raj Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd holds 49 per cent equity stake in the company.

The company offers a product mix ranging from sterling silver, gold and platinum-studded jewellery.

The total cost of land and building will be around Rs 8 crore. The manufacturing capacity of the new plant will be nearly 8,000 pieces per month, to begin with. The plant has been designed on a modular basis taking care of future expansion needs. The project will be operational in May 2006. A new design and innovation centre is also coming up at the Ahmedabad unit.

"The diamond market has been growing at the rate of 30 per cent annum and our targeted growth rate is around 70 per cent annually," Mr Jai Begani, Managing Director of the company, told Business Line.

The company had a strong client base across the country ranging from Alukkas, GRT in the South to Chintamanis, TBZ in the West to Bholasons in the North. It planned to expand its sales network of gold and diamond jewellery divisions from 110 currently to over 230 stores over the next two years, he said. Also, it would open a new wholesale stocking point office in Bangalore by September-end, replicating this exercise in Mumbai and Delhi in the next two years.

"In recent years, the gemstone-studded jewellery market has witnessed an exponential growth due to the design permutations possible, mass appeal and lower price points. To achieve greater market penetration, we have planned to appoint 12 new dealers in various States by the month-end," he said.

Each dealer was expected to contribute at least 15 kg (around Rs 1 crore) of gemstones-studded jewellery sales per month on an annualised basis. "This strategy is expected to fetch us a growth from the existing 30 kg a month to over 180 kg (Rs 12 crore) a month," he said.

"We are also planning for dealers in SAARC countries after the domestic network is set up," he added.

The company intended to gear up its corporate marketing across the country using precious metal products (silver, gold and platinum) for gifting, employee-reward programmes and product promotions. "We have already started with StanChart Bank, Arvind Mills, PNB Bank, Torrent group and Cadila in this regard. Corporate purchase decisions normally rely upon transparency," he said.

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