Kirtilalas eyes Punjab gold and diamond jewellery market

Kirtilal Kalidas and Company (renamed Kirtilalas) is targeting the gold and diamond jewellery market of Punjab. The company will roll out its first outlet in the north (seventh in India) on December 14 in Ludhiana.

Marketing Head Balaji Vishwanathan said the company was keen to open its retail outlets in Delhi and Chandigarh too.

"We understand customers' loyalty to the existing brands. We will have to make a niche for ourselves in the new market," he said.

He said the company was investing substantially in marketing the brand by organising roadshows and communicating with potential customers. The company's integration with Dimexon (a leading sightholder of DTC London and the largest manufacturer of gem diamonds in the world) was what he regarded its biggest strength.

Vishwanathan said the firm's assembly unit in Coimbatore was equipped with state-of-the-art machinery imported from Japan, Germany, the US, and Italy.

"There has been a deviation from pure gold ornaments to studded jewellery and our in-house designers, with the help of modern IT technology, are working on innovative designs," he added.

"Tastes and preferences of customers in the north are apparently different from those in our existing markets," he said.

"Our designers went to Punjab to get customer feedback to make the product compatible with the tastes of customers there," he said.

According to Vishwanathan, the firm has sufficient manpower to prepare jewellery for the individual customer.

He refused to state the sales figure but said the sales were increasing at 12-15 per cent per annum.

The company has proposed to offer 15 Maruti Swift cars to select buyers as part of its promotional campaign and those would be offered all over country.