BANGALORE: With a tradition that goes back to 1935 in Udupi, Abharan Jewellers which caters to the high-end metropolitan crowd of Bangalore has been offering exquisite neo-traditional haute couture jewellery. Pratap Kamath, CEO, Abaran Jewellers speaks with Vyas Sivanand about their unique identity and future plans.
How different is the flagship Abaran store in Bangalore from your heritage store in Udupi?
The Bangalore store has a new identity with a product variety that is very different from Udupi. Udupi caters to a semi-urban market, where as in Bangalore, we cater to a metropolitan customer. So in terms of merchandise and overall approach, it is quite different.
What are your
expansion plans?
We are organising few B2C shows in Singapore and Dubai to understand their potential. But I think the maximum potential is in India. Focused expansion within the country will yield better dividend than trying to go out of the country. We are keen on expanding to other parts of Bangalore, primarily south of the city. In the next five years, we want to be present in other parts of Karnataka too.
What is your strategy considering the strong competition you face in the industry?
Today most of the players follow the price strategy. In jewellery business, you grow either with the price strategy or design strategy. When it comes to price, you have to be accessible and ensure that price are low whereas in the design strategy you don’t need to be present in many places — your design will bring people to you. Our strategy is design oriented. We want the customer to buy from us giving equal importance to design and a better shopping experience
China imports about 769 tonnes of gold with a Forex reserve of $3223 billion, while India imports 1059 tonnes with a measly reserve of $283.8 billion. Does the government need to relook at its gold strategy?
In China, most of the gold is with the government. In India, it is with the public. India as a country is very rich. For example, India has a reserve of about 600 tonnes of gold, whereas Fort Knox of US has a reserve of 8,000 tonnes of gold. But if you look at the Indian public, they surely have way more than Fort Knox. The unused gold should come out rather than staying in lockers. The government should create some policy to
address this issue.