Gitanjali group to open 30 jewellery outlets

Mumbai-based Gitanjali Group, a leading manufacturer of diamond jewellery and known for its Gili and Nakshatra brands of ornaments, has planned 30 Gitanjali Jewels outlets across the country in the next four months.

These branded jewellery outlets would be over and above the 38 Gitanjali Jewels outlets which the group has in various locations of the country.

Addressing media persons here, Rajesh Baid, head (retail projects), Gitanjali Jewels said, “We are looking at 30 new branded jewellery outlets across the country in the next four months. Some of these outlets would also come up in Tier-III towns of the country as we believe that there is a huge potential for sale of branded jewellery items in these locations.”

Gitanjali Jewels, owned by the Gitanjali Group rolled out its maiden outlet in the city spread over an area of 1,500 sq ft on Friday. The organised jewellery retailer aimed to set up its second such store in the state at Rourkela within a month.

Apart from branded jewellery products, the exclusive outlets of Gitanjali Jewels would also sell branded wrist watches of Italy and Switzerland. While the branded jewellery products would be available to the customers in the range of Rs 4,000-Rs 1.5 lakh, the branded wrist watches would be priced at Rs 2,000-Rs 58,000.

“We believe that there is a very good demand for branded jewellery products in Orissa as the state recorded sales worth Rs 85-90 crore of our products in 2007-08. The sales are going to pick up significantly now that we have opened our exclusive outlet in the state”, added Baid.

The branded products of Gitanjali Jewels were sold in Orissa in Pantaloons, Big Bazaar and local jewellery outlets.

Asked if the economic recession has impacted the sales of the branded jewellery products, Baid said, the recession has not dented our sales in any way and we have actually posted about eight per cent growth in our sales in the last quarter (January-March) of 2008-09.

Our group was banking on the growing market for organised jewellery in the country which was estimated at Rs 10,000 crore per annum and the market was posting a year-on-year growth of 6-7 per cent, he added.

At present, Gitanjali Group has 125 outlets throughout the country out of which 38 were branded jewellery outlets. The remaining outlets of the group catered to fashion, lifestyle and luxury products.