Orra likely to open second store in Hyderabad next year

Orra, which is planning to open 40 diamond jewellery stores across the country by 2007 at an investment of Rs 90 crore, is planning to open its second store in Hyderabad in the next one year.

The company, part of the $1.4 billion Belgium-based Rosy Blue Group, inaugurated its first store in the city today.

Orra, the jewellery retail company, has tie-ups with the three leading jewellery organisations "�DTC (De Beers), PGI (Platinum Guild India) and WGC (World Gold Council). It has design centres in New York, Antwerp, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Mumbai.

Speaking to Business Standard, Vijay Jain, chief executive officer of Orra - The diamond destination, said: "The Hyderabad market has a huge potential and depending on the success of our first store, we would be launching our second store in the city in the next one year."

The company was also studying the markets in other parts of Andhra Pradesh for their exclusive outlets. "Visakhapatnam would be the most likely place after Hyderabad for our new stores, as the market there offers good potential for growth," he said.

"We plan to raise Rs 90 crore for the new stores by a combination of debt and equity," Jain said. The company's media spend for the next three months would be around Rs 4.5 crore, he added.

The company is entering the Indian market with the launch of six to eight collections for women and around five collections for men.

While the entry price point is Rs 5,000, at the higher end the handcrafted jewellery is priced between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh. Jain also said that they would be launching an exclusive bridal collection next month, which would be in the premium category.

He said that the company's unique selling proposition was that it was an exclusive diamond store in the Rs 6,000-crore diamond market in the country.

Classifying the diamond market, Jain said that while the markets in the south preferred the best quality diamonds, those in the west preferred both high quality and medium range ones and the markets in the north and east preferred lower quality diamonds.

"We have our manufacturing facility in Goa, where we make around 10,000 pieces a month. Because of the five per cent import duty on polished diamonds, it is cheaper to get roughs from abroad and polish them here. We, therefore, source our roughs from Diamond Trading Company (DTC), Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) and Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) and polish them in Mumbai. For the first time, customers in India will get internally flawless diamonds imported from Belgium," he said.

He added that being a premium brand, the decor of their stores was also international. "We have a circular display unit, specific price points and storyboards. While our positioning is premium, our pricing is not," he added.

"Over the last 40 years, the trends in the jewellery market have changed. Now, people prefer light jewellery with international designs that can be worn on multiple occasions. There has been entry at lower price points as well," Jain said.

Comparing the Indian market with the international markets, Jain said that while the American market was price sensitive and preferred lower quality and classic jewellery, the European market was more like the Indian market, preferring new designs on a regular basis.

"The people in India prefer floral designs as compared to geometric designs abroad," he added.

Orra is a part of the Rosy Blue Group, which is the world's largest diamond manufacturing company with a presence across fourteen countries, headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium.

The group is the largest buyer of rough diamonds in the world and is a sightholder of DTC, BHP and RTZ. The group has been the largest jewellery exporter for twelve years consecutively from India.