Rajesh Exports plans Rs 400-cr expansion of SEZ operations

The company plans to increase revenue from retail jewellery sales to 15%

Rajesh Exports, among the top publicly held gold jewellery exporters in India, is set to expand its gold processing special export-processing zone (SEZ) in Kochi with an investment of Rs 400 crore.

The company will fund this expansion from internal resources and will look at tapping the external commercial borrowing market for this.

The SEZ, which has been operational for the past few years, has a capacity to process eight tonnes of gold a month and this will have a unit to focus on specialised jewellery meant for Italian and other global markets.  

Rajesh Mehta, chairman and managing director,said the company was in the final stages of putting up this new unit and they should be starting exports in the near future.

“There is huge demand for Indian designed jewellery in global markets and we intend to tap that potential. The new unit will have a capacity to process four tonnes of gold per month,” he said.

The company, which was in the news after 900 g of gold were seized at Kochi railway station, has said it was not involved in any activity which was against the law of the country.  “We have checked the stock and all the accounts are perfectly tallied and no stock is missing from our SEZ. It seems like a case of mistaken identity and our company is not involved in this matter in any manner,” Mehta noted.

The company, which has annual revenue of Rs 30,000 crore, mostly from exports, has also been focusing on increasing its retail sales in India.

“Currently, close to 90 per cent of the revenues come from exports and as we are increasing the focus on retail sales, we should be have 15 per cent of revenues from retail sales over a period of time,” he added.