Kalyan Jewellers lines up Rs 135 crore investment in UP

South India-based Kalyan Jewellers has lined up investment of about Rs 135 crore to expand its footprint in the Uttar Pradesh market.

The company, which already operated a company owned retail store in Noida, on Wednesday announced to launch its 116th outlet in Lucknow.

“We have invested close to Rs 75 crore in the Lucknow outlet and by the end of this fiscal, our third UP store would materialise in Kanpur,” Kalyan Jewellers Executive Director Ramesh Kalyanaraman said.

He said UP was a big market and contributed almost 10 percent to the country’s jewellery segment, which is still dominated by the local unorganised players.

“Before entering this market, we had conducted our due diligence and market research. We found that our brand provided the perfect proposition to the state customers with regards to product, design and value,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kalyan is eyeing revenues of about Rs 11,500 crore in the current fiscal.

It has also planned to launch new stores in other cities of the North, including Bhopal and Indore. The company claims a dedicated customer base of almost 1.5 million with 70 percent repeat buyers.

Commenting on the possible impact of demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the cap on cash transactions on the jewellery segment, Kalyanaraman noted all such factors had in fact boosted the organised players and led to more transparency in pricing and quality.

“The shift from the unorganised jewellery segment to the organised space has been more rapid in the tier II and III towns, since the organised players already had stronger presence in the metro and bigger cities,” he underlined.

He informed over the past few weeks, the domestic jewellery sector had witnessed an unpick in demand and the players were confident that the momentum would further pick up in the coming months