BANGALORE: Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewelry Ltd (Su-Raj), a manufacturer and exporter of Indian Gems and Jewelry announced picking up of a 49 per cent stake in Forever Jewelry and Diamonds Ltd. to focus on the domestic jewelry segment. Ahmedabad based Forever has a nationwide network for targeting the business-to-business (B2B) jewelry market on March 18, 2005 in Bangalore.
Su-Raj CEO Jatin Mehta said “Our objective in picking up a stake in Forever is to tap the high growth domestic market segment, Forever’s business profile is complimentary to the Su-Raj diamonds while jewelry from Su-Raj will cater to the large international B2B clients whereas Forever will tap the domestic B2B market, which is estimated to be about Rs. 450 billion having an annual growth rate of about 8 per cent. Forever supplies to such renowned brands like Tanishq, Alukkas, and all the major stores in South India, many in the North."
While speaking with indiantelevison.com, Mehta added, “We are going one step up the ladder in the supply chain. Our core competence lies in manufacturing, designing, creating a product and merchandising – not marketing. Marketing to retail– At Forev er, we already have a customer base and we don’t to trample upon them, we’d like to work along with them rather than be in competition with them. We don’t want to build a brand. Let our customers do that, they’re good at that. We want to focus on delivering a quality product, getting the best product out of our system. Retail marketing is a different story. Our customers already are into this. We have a larger market space to work with through these customers, rather than work on a small scale or in retail situation. In Su-Raj we have a policy to deal only on B2B basis and not create a brand as such, we’d like to remain a B2B company only. Neither Su-Raj nor Forever are brands as such. We’d rather reach a bigger, wider market through existing brands and provide VFM (value for money) to our customer and hence to the consumers than spend money on brand building."
Forever MD Jai Begani, “We are happy to be associated with a reputed corporate like Su-Raj. Their manufacturing and technological capability in jewelry exports can be utilized in the domestic market too. We have an innovative marketing strategy for targeting B2B segments in addition to adding unique product lines in the near future.”
Su-Raj expects to touch Rs. 10 billion in turnover this fiscal, while Forever with an equity base of Rs. 70 million expects to gross Rs. 450 million and expects a growth of 50-70 per cent in the next year after the tie-up with Su-Raj. Forever also plans to set up a manufacturing facility at a cost of about Rs. 70 million in Ahemdabad while Su-Raj has already invested about Rs.100 million in the first phase of their new production facility at Goa, besides the facility in Bangalore. The total cost of the Goa project is expected to be Rs. 250 million as per Mehta.
