Suraj Shantakumar is the Director, Business Strategy, of Kirtilal Kalidas Jewellers Pvt Ltd and a key shareholder and director of various family businesses. He graduated in Business Management (Finance) from the California Polytechnic State University. This versatile 27 year old is involved in the management of the family’s many businesses starting with Kirtilal Kalidas Jewellers Pvt Ltd, Vispark Jewellery Manufacturers Pvt Ltd, Suraj Agro Infrastructure Pvt Ltd and Benchmark Softec India Pvt Ltd.
Bringing ideas that are fresh and out of the box, Suraj Shantakumar has a strong desire to constantly incorporate the best from across the globe into the operations he is overseeing. He is most passionate about Kirtilal Kalidas Jewellers Pvt Ltd. In his leisure time, he enjoys kayaking, river rafting and bungee jumping. An avid traveler, he enjoys travelling to exotic locations across the globe. Here, he speaks with Rough & Polished about the company, the Indian jewellery sector and more…
Some excerpts:
For the benefit of the readers, can you give an overview of your company and also take us through the company’s growth over the years?
Our company Kirtilals is a manufacturer and retailer of fine diamond and gold jewellery operating with 10 jewellery stores across South India and a retail sales office in New Delhi and is the first company to be certified under ISO 9001:2008 for both its retail and production units simultaneously. Our group company ‘Eurostar’ is one of the few sight-holders of DTC with two sites in London and Botswana.
We have a state of the art manufacturing unit – Vispark Jewellery Manufacturers Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore. Our flagship showroom is in Coimbatore and also showrooms in Chennai, Madurai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and New Delhi. We have opened an exclusive lounge for premier customers and patrons at select outlets to cater to the crème de la crème of the society. The clientele can step into the lounge and design their jewellery in consultation with our own in-house designers that would not be replicated to the other clientele.
The tagline - “Adorning Generations Since 1939”, is the essence of the confidence that the Kirtilals retail stores have built up legacy, trust and quality over the last 75 years. The domestic clientele that we cater to comprises predominantly of South India. The international clientele that the Company caters to is spread across 3 continents and in over 56 countries predominantly in the United States of America, Europe and United Arab Emirates.
What changes has your company witnessed in the Indian market over the years in terms of diamond / color stone / gold content as well as design?
Diamonds - The market for diamonds, awareness for diamonds has been on the rise with more people aspiring to own diamonds.
Colour stone - As jewellery has transformed from more of an investment and traditional product to a lifestyle product, consumers have increasingly been more aware and knowledgeable about different types of colour stones.
Gold content and design - While traditional consumers prefer to have heavy gold weight in their jewelry in traditional designs, lightweight and easily wearable products with more modern design concepts are in demand now, as jewelry needs to fit the evolving lifestyle of the Indian woman.
Do you think diamond jewellery has finally found its place in the gold-loving Indian consumers?
While diamond jewelry was a niche category in the past with only the elite buying diamonds, it has now become a category for which the consumer base has widened as the mindset of the consumer changes.
In terms of demand, what type of jewellery is more popular with the buyers? Does it vary as per different regions? And how important is the diamond content in your jewellery?
High quality diamond jewellery has been our key differentiator since our company commenced in 1939, with our reputation and track record built on selling the highest quality of diamonds. In terms of demand, we have seen the demand for diamond jewelry growing at a faster pace compared to gold jewelry.
In your opinion, do high-end jewellers find themselves competing for a market share with the pure gold / lesser priced studded jewellery, given that volume sales are more in that space?
This was the case in the past. As the market has matured, consumer segments have gotten more defined and there is a space now for high-end jewellers whose value proposition is clearly differentiated from the pure gold/ lesser priced studded jewellery.
The gold available for domestic use has been a problem in recent time. How does your company tackle the gold shortage?
In anticipation of this issue in the market, our company has hedged over by positioning ourselves more strongly in the diamond jewelry segment, which is away from the mass-market gold jewelry retailers.
Do you foresee a future where less gold caratage couture jewellery / bridal collections and other high-end collections where diamond is the main content will be accepted in the Indian market?
While the diamond jewelry demand in bridal and other high end collections will be growing strongly in the future, lower caratage of gold content in the jewelry might not be accepted in regions like south India where the consumer sentiment for higher quality of gold and diamonds is strong.
Your take on the current domestic market as far as diamond jewellery demand is concerned. And what is the trend, especially in shape /size/ colour of diamonds that are in demand nowadays?
As the consumer demand will pick up in the coming year, the diamond jewelry demand will be at the forefront of the growth story with new opportunities to leverage the demand. While designs with smaller round diamonds are the bulk of the demand, solitaires and fancy shapes are a complimentary product. Fancy colors remain a niche category for which awareness and demand is yet to be strongly created.
Aruna Gaitonde, Rough & Polished, India
