MMTC has made rapid strides in retail product sales amounting to Rs 610 crore till date in the current financial year as against Rs 490 crore the previous year and it may be in the range of Rs 800-900 crore during 2012-13, according to Mr Ashish Majumdar, Chief General Manager.
He was talking to presspersons here on Wednesday morning after an exhibition of gold jewellery organised by the MMTC was declared open by the District Collector of Visakhapatnam, Mr Lav Agarwal.
Mr Majumdar said that MMTC, the largest importer of gold in India, was organising jewellery exhibitions in all the major cities, making available to the customer jewellery from all over the country under one roof.
“Gold jewellery is hallmarked for purity and the precious stones in studded jewellery are accompanied by a certificate issued by an international accredited agency,” he said.
He said MMTC was currently earning Rs 125 crore of its retail earnings through exhibitions.
He said the country was importing 960 tonnes of gold, which was nearly 35 per cent of world's mine production, and MMTC was the largest importer with 245 tonnes.
He said MMTC had set up an in-house medallion manufacturing facility (mint) in New Delhi and the medals - both silver and gold - with 999 purity were very popular with the public as well as corporates.
He said MMTC had set up a joint venture with PAMP SA for manufacture of gold medals and refining of gold and silver.
The project at a cost of Rs 200 crore was set up in Haryana and commercial production commenced in 2011. The joint venture has an annual refining capacity of 100 tonnes of gold and 600 tonnes of silver.
MMTC had set up another joint venture with Gitanjali Gems and jewellery was being sold under the brand name Shuddhi.
He said 17 retail stores were operational in the country and 63 more retail outlets would be opened over the next three years.
Mr Ravi Kishore, general manager, precious metals, said MMTC would set up five more showrooms on its own in the country, and one more was proposed at Visakhapatnam. MMTC had appointed 75 franchisees in the country to market its products.