The Gold Baron
The Gold Baron

Generations have passed since Goenka Jewellery came into existence. Such has been the impact of the brand in the Indian market that it has been recognized as one of the top diamond dealers in the country. Nitin Goenka, Managing Director, Goenka Diamond and Jewels Ltd, shares the journey that his ancestors transpired through to earn this reputation with Aadeetya Sriram.

 

Aadeetya Sriram (AS): Can you tell us something about your products?

Nitin Goenka (NG): You will get to indulge in the luxury of two brands from the house of Goenka Diamond and Jewels. Unveiled in April 2009, “CERES” is a luxury brand for high end jewelry handcrafted from the most unique, rare, finest diamonds and precious gemstones designed for connoisseurs. Through CERES we aim to redefine luxury in jewelry in India and globally. Each CERES piece spells unparalleled luxury and has a collection of diamonds so rare and precious that can be best described as priceless. And, one you certainly won’t find again! The CERES Collections; Antiques of the Future, Estate Jewels, Vintage Jewels, Royal Diamond Jewels, CERES Splendour and Riviera collections.

 

Further, CERES stocks a stunning and extensive collection of large sized solitaires in a host of sizes and shapes in white and natural fancy colours handpicked to be customized by our designers to suit your style. The G WILD range has timeless pieces of elegant diamond pendants, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings. Diamonds in Motion: The range flaunts an array of products showcasing style and class with innovative and contemporary styling of pendants and earrings. Finely crafted diamonds pendants in shape of amulets, lucky charms and symbols, along with an exclusive array of stunning diamond earrings defines the generation-next fashion. The entire range is framed to suit any occasion dawning grace and elegance. Colours of Life: The collection ‘Colours of Life’ incorporated in rings, personifies positivity in life. The collection uses stones of different colours, signifying moods of life. Chandelier Collection: The chandelier collection promises to dazzle in the crowd. The Chandelier is a wide collection of earnings, ideally suited for that special evening! Jewellery from G-Wild is priced from Rs. 10, 000 upto Rs. 5 lakhs, G WILD has its own exclusive stores across India. Two stores are located in Mumbai and while another is in Ludhiana. It also has two franchisee stores in Gurgaon and Chandigarh.

 

 AS: Which customers are you targeting?

 NG: We target a varied section of the society. With our CERES we beckon the people who are the connoisseurs of rare solitaire diamonds and jewellery of unmatchable design. CERES is a high end brand which is targeted for the high end class. If you see the number of billionaires that are increasing in India the growth rate is higher than the world average and CERES is targeted towards them where our average product is ranged between 5 Lacs – several crores. There have been seen quite spontaneous sales in this high end brand.

The G WILD brand is focused on the youth which is more trendy and stylish and the price range is right from Rs 5000 to Rs 5, 00,000 and our target audience for this is between the age brackets of 15 to 35 years. At this age today’s youth has a lot of disposable income and buying such kind of jewellery is normal.

 

AS: What kind of benefit do the tie-ups with NGO’s provide the brands?

NG: Our association with social work or NGO’s is not something new. We have The Goenka Charitable Trust set up by Mr. Nand lal Goenka, my father, with the mission to educate poor artisans, farmers, rural weavers, unemployed youth and women of the state of Rajasthan. The sanstha helps needy girls get married and has organized blood donation drives at railway stations across Mumbai. This interest is a very natural part of my persona; I have seen my grandfather and then my father take active interest in social work. Now as far as marketing tie-ups or the recently concluded auction in Delhi goes its part of the promotions and also reaching out to those who are in need. In one way the brand is being promoted by the renowned guests at the party and also we are giving away some part of the auction money to the charitable cause. It’s a humane side of us.

 

AS: Delhi/NCR is becoming the hub for high-end brands, your plans in North?

NG: We have definite plans for the North of India especially with Delhi/NCR being one of the regions where our diamond and diamond jewellery will find lot of connoisseurs. We will open few stores there shortly and we believe that some of the designs will be created keeping the people of that region in mind.

 

AS:  How many exclusive stores do you have in the country? Are we expecting more of them any time soon in the future?

NG: The Company has four standalone boutique stores under its two premium brands -- G Wild and Ceres. In Mumbai, Gurgaon, and Ludhiana. The new stores will come up in locations like Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Ahmadabad, Kanpur, Delhi, Goa, Amritsar and Kolkata.  Actually some of these are the cities which are slowly becoming metros in their own right with fast paced development and rapid industrialization. The disposable income of certain pockets has also gone up by leaps and bounds so people residing in these places hardly think twice before indulging themselves in diamonds and jewellery. Also our brands give a wide array of choice. G Wild is trendy stylish jewellery for the youth and CERES is a jewellery line for the rich and famous which caters to the high-end of the society where the product range starts from 5 lakhs and runs into crores. These cities will have buyers who can afford both these products and has panache for luxury.

 

 AS: Do you have any specific design studios for your jewellery? Where are your factories located in the country?

NG: At present, we have got 4 manufacturing facilities. One is Russia for diamond cutting, the other in Surat for diamond cutting and two units in Mumbai (one for diamond cutting and one for jewellery manufacturing). Each unit has different capacity, but overall we have a combined capacity of over 75000 carats of rough diamond in process in all the three diamond cutting factories. In 2010 our production was to the tune of 45000 to 50000 carats and we plan to start 2 more new factories this year one for diamond cutting and the other for jewellery manufacturing to boost our existing capacity which will sustain the new stores which we are planning to start. All our jewellery and its designs are personally verified and checked by me and my team before it reaches the shelves.

 

AS: What marketing strategy have you adopted for your brand?

NG: The G Wild branding activity will include fully fledged advertising through electronic media and all other sorts of media. While for the CERES we intend to organize high profile parties for page 3 personalities for lunches, brunches at the store, this is more through the word of mouth. This is how we intend to promote/ advertise this brand and intend to spend minimum on advertising. In FY10 we had a total revenue of around Rs 150 crore out of the jewellery segment, out of which around 80 percent of this was contributed by CERES and 20 percent was from G WILD.

 

AS: What sort of retail expansion plans do you have for CERES?

NG: Goenka Diamond and Jewels plans to scale up its operations and we have earmarked an investment of up to Rs 100 crore to fuel its growth. As part of the expansion plan, the company plans to open 19 more outlets pan-India with an investment of Rs 100 crore over the next 18 months, taking the total number of outlets to 24. Of this 17 will be G Wild and two will be Ceres stores. On the back of expansion plans, the company aims to grow at 25 per cent annually atleast in the next five years. We are expecting a 25 per cent top-line growth this fiscal, at par with the industry standards. The bottomline is expected to grow by nine per cent to around Rs 60 crore. Our company, derives around 75 per cent of its total revenue from exports to countries like Russia and Malaysia, and we have clocked a net sales of Rs 536 crore in FY 10 and has targeted this number to go up to Rs 700 crore in FY11.

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