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Having set up a plant to process 300 kg of silver per day in Jaipur two years back, Silver Emporium is planning to enhance its customer reach by launching new handmade silver jewellery and opening new showrooms in Chennai, Mumbai and Jaipur.
The Mumbai-headquartered company, which will be the first silver retailer with large integrated production facility, would use silver as the base for its jewellery designs with gold and diamond added in right quantity to augment the aesthetic look.
Apart from jewellery, the new showrooms will display many items made of silver, including walking sticks, spectacle frames, pens, bags and mobile covers.
Rahul Mehta, Managing Director, Silver Emporium, said the company would be able to offer silver wares at a better price as it will be the only integrated player in the segment.
Currently, the company sells its goods through 400 retail stores across the country.
Price advantageThe demand for silver wares is looking up, especially among youth and college students, as they are not comfortable with jewellery churned out in the bright yellow metal. This led to the popularity of platinum as an alternative for gold, but it could not make a big dent as the cost is high, said Mehta.
The cost of silver at ₹37,000 a kg is much cheaper than ₹27 lakh and ₹22 lakh for a kg of gold and platinum, respectively, said Mehta. Despite the price advantage, silver jewellery has not caught the fancy of customers as the industry is highly unorganised and there is lack of trust with most silver items currently sold having a mix of cadium which is banned in India, he said.
Purity certificationSilver Emporium plans to provide certificate of purity with each of the jewellery sold.
“We inscribe special alphabets as marking in all our jewellery so we will buy them back at anytime at market price,” said Mehta, who joined the family business six years back after passing out from IIM-Bangalore.
Impressed by the response in the four retail outlets in Mumbai, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Mehta decided to go pan-India after strengthening its manufacturing capacity.
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