MUMBAI: Kalyan Jewellers, which was recently in the eye of the storm with its racist ad featuring brand ambassador Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, has recovered quickly from the controversy and is going full throttle with its expansion plans.
While eyeing a growth of 30 per cent in its topline to Rs 13,000 crore, the company is also looking at enhancing the distribution network by 30 per cent in the year.
The jewellery maker is looking to expand its operations with an investment of Rs 175 crores. As a first step, the company has opened four new outlets across India with its first showroom launch in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, followed by two showrooms in Gurgaon and Noida. With the two new showrooms in Gurgaon and Noida, Kalyan Jewellers will now have a total of five exclusive showrooms in the NCR region and a total of nine showrooms in North India including Jalandhar and Amritsar.
Kalyan Jewellers, which has been present in the UAE since 2013, is also strengthening its presence by adding a new showroom, marking the tenth for the company in the UAE. Continuing on this aggressive expansion drive, Kalyan Jewellers is planning to set up 22 showrooms this fiscal year, of which nine will be in the Gulf region. Plans are also afoot to launch six showrooms in Qatar.
The company, which has a network of 79 exclusive showrooms in India and West Asia, is targeting 100 showrooms by the end of the year.
Kalyan Jewellers is also in the process of converting its 570 customer service centres into mini 'My Kalyan' stores, which will focus on selling affordable diamonds to capitalise on the potential of this category.
Kalyan Jewellers chairman and managing director T.S. Kalyanaraman said, “Jewellery consumption in the Indian market is increasing due to positive consumer sentiment and stable prices, and we want to tap into this growth. Funding of the expansion plans will be met through the funds we have received from the private equity investment as well as from internal accruals and bank borrowings. We are targeting 30 per cent growth in topline to Rs 13,000 crore and enhancing the distribution network by 30 per cent in the year. We are also ramping up our manufacturing operations and plan to have India's biggest production house by 2017.”
The company recently also launched a gold and diamond jewellery collection at its Chennai store with an investment of Rs 200 crores, making it was the single largest investment by any jeweller in a single showroom across the country.
