Buoyed by the good response from NRI customers, jewellery maker PC Chandra Jewellers is planning to open stores abroad and considering locations in London, Dubai, Singapore and Los Angeles.
The city based jeweller, which has about 21 showrooms in the country at present, also plans to open six showrooms across the country by the year-end. Of the six showrooms, four would be in West Bengal.
“One showroom each in Mumbai and Hyderabad is in the pipeline by the end of this year. Also, we are studying possibilities in London, Dubai, Singapore and Los Angeles as our designs are extremely popular with the NRI crowd as seen in various fairs,” PC Chandra Jewellers Joint Managing Director Prasanto Chandra told PTI here.
When asked if the stores would be through joint venture or standalone, Chandra said the company is studying options and is not in a position to divulge specifics. He also refused to speak about the timeline for the stores.
The company has been wooing customers with its wedding collections and its recently launched diamond range ‘D’ite’, lightweight jewellery line ‘Gold Lites’ and ‘Eterna’.
Eterna caters to the top-of-the-line customers and ranges from Rs 2 lakh and above, while Gold Lites was for the on-the-go customers and ranges between Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000.
“We are also talking to some ace designers to contribute to our Eterna collection. We have shortlisted a few of them,” Chandra said without giving details.
“We expect a 20 per cent growth in sales, especially from the diamond business. However, in gold sales we see a 5 per cent drop. Sales are normally better during December, January and February and we look forward to a healthy fiscal,” he said.
Established in 1939, PC Chandra Jewellers, a privately held, family run firm, is a much revered brand in eastern India.