Is all that glitter gold? Let’s find out by analysing Kalyan Jewellers brand

One of the largest jewellery brands in India – Kalyan Jewellers was established by Mr T.S Kalyanaraman in 1993 with its first showroom located in Thrissur, Kerala. For around seven years, it operated from one store and most of its customers hailed from the neighbouring cities and states. As a part of its expansion plans, Kalyan Jewellers later adopted a hyper-local approach considering how consumer behaviour differs from region to region.

The brand then built its presence at Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in 2003 and today, it boasts of a pan-India presence with over 140 showrooms across 21 states in India as well as in the Middle East.  It designs and sells jewellery pieces as per customers’ unique preferences and works closely with local artisans for manufacturing. It also has an e-commerce presence at https://www.candere.com/.

Brand Strengths  

For Kalyan Jewellers, the ability to operate hyper-locally has been its main USP. It works on grassroots levels to project itself as a neighbourhood jeweller through programs like ‘My Kalyan’. This has been instrumental in drawing in customers.

Since weddings are the occasions when purchasing jewellery is in full swing, the ‘My Kalyan’ employees engage with astrologers, caterers, event managers, makeup artists and other key stakeholders within the wedding ecosystem. With this, the brand seeks potential jewellery customers. Every year, it is through this program that Kalyan Jewellers engages with more than 10 million prospective customers.

In FY20, its domestic jewellery business contributed to around 78 per cent of its revenues while exports accounted for over 21 per cent.

Brand Strategies

Kalyan Jewellers plans to leverage its business model to expand and diversify its channel of distribution as well as product offerings in the coming time. It also seeks to expand its ‘My Kalyan’ network which is one of the key elements of the brand’s hyper-local strategy. With the funds it will collect through IPO, Kalyan seeks to meet the working capital requirements.

Brand Weaknesses and key risks

Despite being one of India’s largest jewellery companies, experts and analysts are of a view that Kalyan Jewellers’ inability to maintain brand strength and establish arrangements with contract manufacturers and suppliers will pose a major challenge. Moreover, the fact that gold prices are volatile and that the jewellery business is seasonal may also take a toll on the brand in the coming time.

The IPO (Initial Public Offering) of Kalyan Jewellers India is currently open for subscription with the price band standing at Rs 86-87 per equity share and it will close on March 18.