Orra to expand via franchise route

Orra, the diamond jewellery retail chain, plans to open 10 new retail outlets in the financial year 2009-10. These would be franchise-based in Tier-two towns, said S Raja, regional manager (North).

“Till now we have 31 exclusive high-street boutiques, all owned by the company. We now want to expand our network through channel partners,” he said. The company has already tied up with three channel partners.

Orra would appoint one representative at every franchisee outlet to monitor the services. “Stores already functioning from shopping malls would be relocated to high streets as we did not get the target audience in the shopping malls,” he added.

Stating that Punjab had been the most lucrative market for the brand, he said, “When we set our foot in Punjab three years ago, we expected to sell more of lightweight jewellery. But, over the period we got more queries for the ornaments over Rs 5 lakh. This was quite encouraging. We have, therefore, decided to open stores at Amritsar, Patiala, Mohali and Jallandhar.” Orra is already present in Ludhiana.

He said sales took a 10 per cent hit due to the global meltdown in most of the centres across India except Chandigarh and Ludhiana.

The company is also in the process of forming joint ventures with foreign designers. “We try to customise our products as the tastes of our buyers in different parts of India differ from each other. For instance, in Punjab buyers prefer to have a combination of coloured stones with diamonds.”