Kashi Jewellers shines in export business

Kashi Jewellers has staged a marked jump in jewellery exports, after it started its unit "The Ray Inc" at the SEZ, Kolkata.

Its exports in 2005-06 amounted to Rs 8.44 crore as against Rs 6.17 crore in 2004-05.

"The company is now concentrating on exports because we have an adequate supply of labour with a unit in the Kolkata SEZ," said Shrayans Kapoor, managing director of the company.

He said: "Wherever we go, we will find that the labour involved in the jewellery trade is all from Bengal. Whether it is Mumbai, Dubai, Delhi or Kanpur, the source of labour is one. There are villages where they are trained in this art from the beginning. Therefore, the move to Kolkata has given us an opportunity to intensify thrust on exports."

In 2005-06, the exports from the Kanpur factories were of Rs 4.36 crore and from the Kolkata unit Rs 4.08 crore, which has given the firm a huge advantage.

"Next year, we should be able to increase exports by another 25 per cent and it will cross Rs 10 crore," said Rajan Kapoor, chairman of the company. He said, "Besides the supply of labour, other important factors are single window service and government support. This results in less cost and higher profits."

He said nowadays the industry had become sophisticated and so the firm had started deploying engineers and had introduced the latest test facilities for skin, the quality of the diamond and other colourful stones.

"In the olden times, the customer used to go by the name of the jeweller. Now we have to work hard to attract customers," said Rajan.

"These days, we have attracted customers by putting up hoardings in such a manner that when a customer approaches the jewellery market, he already has our name on his mind," he said.

The company has won state awards and was adjudged second for export promotion. Kashi Jewellers is one of the few firms that has taken the bold steps in keeping with the times and is set to join the big league of exporters in a few years time. It has already become the number one in the state.