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MARKET The growth of Kalyan Jewellers has been exponential since it started operations in 1993 in India. In December 2013, the brand forayed into the UAE, launching six stores on one single day with their brand ambassadors. Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, stalwart of Indian cinema inaugurated the showrooms along with other brand ambassadors. Kalyan Jewellers turnover as of financial year ending on March 31, 2016 is $192 million and they are growing rapidly at 30 percent. Needless to say, Kalyan is bullish about the growth prospects in the UAE and the GCC region.

Kalyan Jewellers has an extensive range of designs in gold, diamond and studded jewellery. The collections vary from daily wear to bridal and special occasions jewellery.

Jewellery differs in motifs and designs across different regions around the world and Kalyan Jewellers understands the need to fulfill distinct customer preferences based on local and cultural sensibilities. This thought reflects in the variety of jewellery that is on offer at all Kalyan Jewellers showrooms. Their brand strategy is to act local rather than having a centralised and uniform product strategy.

Kalyan Jewellers manufacturing units in India and the GCC allow them the flexibility to bring in

the latest designs to the market and also provide an extensive variety across multiple price points in keeping with the needs of the customer. This combined with the brand’s relentless focus on quality, innovation and transparent pricing makes brand Kalyan a compelling proposition.

Kalyan Jewellers aims to maintain their leadership position in India and consolidate their distribution network in the GCC as they enter new markets. They have recently launched seven showrooms in Qatar on a single day again and this is in keeping with their style of entering a new market in the most emphatic manner. Market expansion for the financial year 2016/2017 includes five more showrooms in the UAE. Currently UAE has eleven showrooms. Kalyan is also exploring potential foray into markets like Singapore and Malaysia. ACHIEVEMENTSKalyan Jewellers has emerged as one of the leading brands in India and the GCC, enjoying the trust of more than two million patrons and 90% of their business is repeat business – a testimony to the brand’s quality, innovation and transparent pricing business model. They believe that the brand’s major achievement is the trust that has been earned of millions of people across all the markets where they operate. The conviction that, an enlightened customer is the best customer has helped Kalyan Jewellers achieve unprecedented loyalty from its patrons.

They are the pioneers to introduce BIS certification of gold jewellery in India and are also the pioneers in introducing detailed price tags, which demystified making charges and offered increased transparency to customers.

Kalyan Jewellers was also the first to introduce the Kalyan Gold card – a one-of-a-kind customer loyalty programme in the jewellery retailing industry. This loyalty programme comes with

exciting benefits for customers apart from the usual accrual of points that could be redeemed at any time. A one-time purchase from any of the Kalyan Jewellers outlets enables ownership of this loyalty card and the points accrued have no expiry date, and can be redeemed any time.

Kalyan Jewellers forayed into the UAE’s gold market by opening six outlets featuring some of Bollywood’s biggest and most bankable names on a single day in December 2013. Kalyan Jewellers invested over $160 million for its first Middle East foray that took meticulous planning for more than a year.

Moreover, the way the company painted most of the city’s public and outdoor billboards with yellow metal colour spraying its name - Kalyan Jewellers - had the perfect and most intended effect. For more than a week, almost everyone in Dubai was talking and wondering about the new name Kalyan Jewellers and the people behind this magic.

Suddenly Kalyan Jewellers had become the ‘talk of the town’ overnight. The way Kalyan Jewellers stormed into Dubai’s jewellery trade is nothing short of a blockbuster or to put more appropriately - a tsunami. It was a brilliant marketing campaign that had the best return on investment.

But it was done in a very traditional way. It was not a Facebook campaign; neither did the company spent much in tweeting its foray into the market. The Kalyan Jewellers marketing campaign had all the basic ingredients in place - the celebrity element, the surprise element and most importantly - the people at the core of the campaign. It dealt with real people, and they responded almost immediately by becoming customers.

The brand’s entry into Kuwait and more recently Qatar also made headlines with the opening of multiple showrooms in the region on the same day in the presence of its brand ambassadors.

Kalyan Jewellers has won a series of accolades in India since its inception, namely Consumer quality for Purity Award (India), Outstanding Businessmen, Multiple Retailer of the year, Retail Jewellers award, Malayalee Business Achievers Award, Best Businessmen Award, Best Entrepreneur Award, Indian Bullion Award, Best Retail Jewellery of the year, Vyavasaya Ratna Award, Indian Retail Award, Economic Times Emerging Retailer of the Year Award and more recently the Emerging Kerala award for the most influential brand of the year.

T.S Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director of Kalyan Jewellers has also been listed in the Forbes list of Billionaires.

Kalyan has set industry level benchmarks on customer experience, innovation and transparent pricing. Kalyan’s leadership position in India is defined by its customer-centric business model that includes many firsts such as:l First to adopt Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification of gold jewellery in the gold retail industry.l First jewellery brand to have a stand-alone retail outlet outside the India Pavilion in Global Village.l First jewellery brand to offer a Bentley as raffle draw prize. l Pioneers to introduce a customer loyalty programme, which has more than two million members today.l First to use detailed price tags, thus demystifying making charges and providing increased transparency to customers.l The first to introduce the concept of neighbourhood customer service centres in the jewellery industry under the “My Kalyan” brand.l The first to introduce the concept of male brand ambassadors, which was conventionally a women centric domain.l The first to launch multiple showrooms in a city on a single day. l Kalyan was also the first brand to introduce a Goldback credit card in association with RAKBANK in the UAE. It is the first, and only, credit card to offer gold returns in the UAE with loyalty points that can be redeemed at any of the Kalyan Jewellers outlets in the UAE in the form of jewellery.l Kalyan Jewellers has also partnered with Dubai Shopping Festival and has run unique and exciting campaigns in the past, where Kalyan Jeweller patrons won the mega prize of 20 kilos and 10 kilos gold. HISTORYT.S Kalyanaraman decided to venture into new trade - gold jewellery - demand of which was growing in Kerala due to increased buying capacity of the then expanding middle class.

In 1993, T.S Kalyanaraman decided to venture into a new trade and opened a gold jewellery showroom. He named it Kalyan Jewellers. “The reason behind starting a jewellery showroom was that many customers used to ask us why we had not started one,” he recalls. “They felt if we had a jewellery showroom, they could buy jewellery also from a trusted brand. Our customers had placed their trust on us and it was their encouragement

which inspired us to foray into jewellery.”Kalyanaraman then invested $75,000 and

borrowed a further $35,500 to kick-start the business.

In 2000, he opened the second showroom in Palakkad (Kerela). In those days, all the jewellery shops in Kerala were small. However, Kalyan Jewellers decided to have a completely new approach. The first step they took was to design a large format showroom, which was fully air-conditioned with high level of aesthetics and service.

They also started an outreach programme and sought customer feedback on their purchase and initiatives, which became a huge hit with customers. The jewellery business was not transparent when Kalyan Jewellers entered. Nobody knew about the purity of the gold they were buying so they introduced a standard and hallmarking, which the other retailers were forced to follow.

In 2010, Kalyan introduced a path-breaking concept. They opened 101 customer service outlets under the name ‘My Kalyan’ across Kerala (India) on a single day. These outlets provided education about buying jewellery, advance gold and jewellery purchase schemes, gold insurance, wedding purchase planning, gift vouchers and gold buying tips. Currently there are over 630 My Kalyan centres across India.

The initial period was challenging. In the jewellery business, there is very little room for trial and error. Kalyan had to quickly understand the value chain and offer a compelling proposition to customers to create a strong differentiation for the brand. It was quick realisation that the jewellery industry was opaque and they had to bring in transparency, quality and choice to win the trust of their customers. Kalyan Jewellers wanted to change the way jewellery was sold

They started putting price tags on each product, clearly indicating all the details such as making and wastage charges along with the final price. These steps enabled Kalyan Jewellers to attract a loyal set of buyers who were willing to pay for design, proven purity, ambience and other incidental charges.

Within their first decade of operation Kalyan Jewellers had five showrooms in India. Thereafter they expanded rapidly across India and opened their 25th showroom in Karnataka in 2011. Currently Kalyan Jewellers has a total of 100 showrooms spread across India and West Asia including 11 in the UAE, seven in Qatar and and three in Kuwait.

l Kalyan Jewellers supports the Indian Governments Housing for all initiative and has committed to build over 1000 houses for the under privileged sections of societyl Kalyan Jewellers launches multiple showrooms when it enters a new marketl T.S Kalyanaraman, Chairman and Managing Director of Kalyan Jewellers, is also eyeing the real estate business and has recently started Kalyan Developers

THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUTKALYAN

RECENT DEVELOPMENTSKalyan Jewellers has recently launched the Mudhra collection with brand ambassadors Jaya Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan. The collection comprises fine antique jewellery, delicately handcrafted, which is reminiscent of India’s rich tradition. . The jewellery focuses specifically on bridal wear and is designed for today’s woman and has an eclectic mix of traditional and modern designs. Kalyan Jewellers has also launched Ameera, the Arabic wedding collection. This signature diamond jewellery collection has been crafted to perfection by most modern jewellery making technology and adorned with stunning diamonds. The ring is accompanied by necklaces, earrings and bracelets and is the perfect embellishment for the bride to be. Kalyan Jewellers forged a strategic association with the celebrated 20th edition of Global Village in November 2015 in Dubai, emerging as the first Indian brand to have moved much beyond the conventional country based pavilion approach adopted by comparable Indian brands. The 20th edition of the Global Village had popular monuments based on theme Seven Wonders of the World. In line with this, Kalyan Jewellers created a unique jewellery showroom with an endearing Taj Mahal replica taking the lead in showcasing the diversity and heritage of India with emphasis on the magnificence of the Taj Mahal,. PROMOTIONKalyan Jewellers engages with customers deeply and has a comprehensive marketing programme. They use a multimedia approach to connect with customers by leveraging the equity of their brand ambassadors including Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Ms. Sonam Kapoor, Mr. Akkineni Nagarjuna, Mr. Prabhu Ganesan and Ms. Manju Warrier. Kalyan Jewellers have also started to increase their presence in the digital domain given its growing resonance.

They embark on several promotions through the year to enable their customers to extract maximum value from their purchases. Their partnerships with DSF, Global Village and promotions like “Win a Bentley” and “100 grams Gold a Day” campaign to name a few have been extremely popular. BRAND VALUES Brand Kalyan’s core attributes are Trust and Timeless elegance.

For Kalyan Jewellers ‘’Trust is everything” and this is exemplified in all their business practices. Their philosophy is to do business in a fair and transparent manner. They believe the enlightened customer is the best customer and will continue to educate and empower consumers. Kalyan Jewellers ensures stringent quality control of all their products. Brand Kalyan has set benchmarks when it comes to quality, innovation as well as transparent pricing and this has ensured consistent growth and success for the brand.

www.kalyanjewellers.net