Su-Raj buys 49% stake in Forever Precious

Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery, a Rs 1,000 crore manufacturer and exporter of gems and jewellery, has picked up a 49 per cent stake in Forever Precious Jewellery and Diamonds for a consideration of Rs 7 crore to enter the domestic jewellery market.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Jatin R Mehta, chairman, Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery, said that since the company's revamp in 1996, it had been focussing only on business-to-business (B2B) exports.

As the Indian gems and jewellery trade, valued at Rs 45,000 crore, was growing at 8 per cent and had good future prospects, "we are entering it through Forever Precious".

"Forever Precious, with a turnover of Rs 45 crore has a network of 3,00,000 domestic jewellers under B2B trade and gives us an edge to be a serious player in the Indian gems and jewellery business," he added.

As part of the capital expenditure of Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery for the quarter, the company is pumping in Rs 15 crore to set up an additional unit in Goa.

"This year the company plans to invest in technology and training to aggresively enter the plain gold, diamond, stones, platinum and silver jewellery market," said Mehta.

Currently the company has a repository of 20,000 designs and has set an ambitious plan to create 500 new designs every month and stabilise it to touch 1,000 designs every month in two years.

"Effective use of CAD/CAM technology in jewellery is being planned to achieve this," he added.

"With a strategic stake in Forever Precious, both companies have devised mutually exclusive business plans. Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery will focus on B2B exports and domestic B2B will be reserved for Forever Precious," said Jai Kr Begani, managing director of Forever Precious.

With the proceeds of equity sale, Forever Precious plans to invest in a manufacturing unit of its own in Ahmedabad to service the domestic and NRI markets.

Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewellery plans to close the year with over Rs 1,000 crore turnover with jewellery contributing over Rs 500 crore. For the nine month ending December 31, the company closed at Rs 760 crore exports, the jewellery share being Rs 354 crore.