Kamla in JV with Swiss firm

To make jewellery items for upper end of the market

Kamla Dials and Devices Ltd of Chandigarh, in a joint venture with Pascal Vincent Vaucher SA of Switzerland, has set up Satva Jewellery and Design Ltd, the first project in India using CNC (computerised numeric-controlled) milling machines, for making jewellery items for the upper end of the market.

The first phase of the project has been completed with an investment of Rs 1 crore at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh.

It includes CNC centres, computerised designing facilities, and eight state-of-the-art assembly units. The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 2 crore. This facility can create up to 700,000 settings per year with an estimated turnover of Rs 9 crore.

The company envisages putting up three more production lines after 2008 and setting up an expanded facility in the proposed gems and jewellery park near Delhi in Haryana.

Satva is a 50:50 joint venture between the two companies, and it wants to export at least half of its designed jewellery.

Talking to Business Standard in Chandigarh, the CEO of Kamla Dials, Yashovardhan Saboo, India's leading watch component manufacturer and exporter, said, "I planned to diversify into jewellery when I felt the business in India is much larger than the watch business. Moreover, the country exports jewellery worth about $2 billion every year whereas watch exports are almost negligible."

During his visit to Europe, he scouted for a partner and clinched the deal with Pascal Vaucher of Switzerland, the world's leading manufacturer in the traditional craft of stone setting and fine jewellery.

Pascal told Business Standard in a statement the project of setting diamonds and other precious stones on metal by using the latest CNC milling techniques was a novel experiment in India. He said normally these settings were done either by gluing or by clasps made manually, a process that's inferior.

The Swiss firm has trained artisans to work on the machines. Stating India to be a lucrative market for this business, Pascal said the availability of cheap labour was a major factor in joining hands with an Indian partner. He said due to the higher cost of jewellery designing in Europe, only the rich could afford it.

Some of the leading jewellery manufacturers like Tanishq, Oyzterbay, Jilly, and Carbon had shown interest in Satva for its jewellery work, he added. The products of Satva will come to the market by the end of July.

Saboo said Satva was in the process of making prototypes of Titan watches.

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Glittering!

• The total cost of the project, for making jewellery items for the upper end of the market, is estimated to be Rs 2 crore
• The facility can create up to 700,000 settings per year with an estimated turnover of Rs 9 crore
• The first phase of the project has been completed with an investment of Rs 1 crore at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh
• The company plans to put up three more production lines after 2008 and set up an expanded facility in the proposed jewellery park in Haryana