‘We want to be a top player in the online space’

Creation of hubs under the Government’s ‘Make in India’ programme may prove to be a boon for the domestic industry, says Balram Garg, Managing Director, PC Jeweller Ltd. In an interview with BusinessLine , Garg outlines the company’s aggressive plans in the online space and taking the brand’s footprint to smaller towns and cities. Edited excerpts:

What are your plans for expansion?

We are following a five-year plan of adding one lakh square feet of retail space a year by opening our own stores. This would mean adding 15-20 stores a year. Till 2019, we expect to have about 150 stores, and we will close this financial year with 55 stores. We are going to open these stores in metros and tier-1 cities, and also have plans to open stores through the franchise model in smaller cities and towns. We will start this from the next financial year and by the end of five years, we plan to have 100 franchise stores.

How are you planning to target online buyers?

We are very aggressive in the online space. We launched our own portal a few months ago and it is doing very well. We are targeting young buyers and working women and have also tied up with other ecommerce players. When we started online sales, the average ticket size was about ₹10,000. This quarter, it has increased to ₹15,000. We anticipate online sales’ ticket size to grow up to ₹50,000 in the next few years. Right now, online sales are just about 0.2 per cent of the industry’s overall jewellery sales, we believe that in India, online sales will contribute 5 per cent to the industry’s sales in the next few years. We want to be the number one player in the online jewellery space.

How is the overall consumer sentiment toward jewellery purchase right now?

Nearly 20-25 per cent of the jewellery market in India is organised, while the balance is unorganised. As consumers shift toward the organised market, the organised jewellery segment has been witnessing growth. The second and third quarters were good for the industry. But, in this quarter, people have postponed purchases as they are expecting import duty cut on gold in the Union Budget. We expect prices of jewellery to be either stable or to come down due to various macro-economic factors in the next 12 months.

What is the kind of growth you are targeting for PC Jewellers this fiscal?

Historically, we have been growing at more than 25 per cent on an average and are targeting growth in the same range. We expect to end this fiscal with about 20 per cent growth, about 20-25 per cent in the next fiscal.

What are your expectations from the upcoming Budget?

The industry is hoping that the Government will introduce some cut in import duty on gold. Also, since our industry comes in the purview of the Make in India programme and employs over 50 lakh workers, creation of jewellery hubs for manufacturing will be good for the domestic industry.

We have requested the Government to promote the domestic industry and raise duty on import of jewellery. In the past two years, we have seen more and more Indians buying jewellery from abroad. International tourists’ purchases of hand-made jewellery have also seen a decline.

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