Mr. Joseph K Varghese, Head HR, Khazana Jewellery gave an overview on the jewellery industry in India.
Mr. Joseph K Varghese, Head HR, Khazana Jewellery visited campus on 10th October for a guest lecture for TAPMI students. Mr Varghese began the session by giving an overview of the jewellery industry in India.
Emphasizing demand of gold in Indian markets, Mr. Varghese said 25% of world’s gold consumption is in India, making it the largest consumer of yellow metal in the world. Gold is one of the fastest growing sectors in India economy with an annual growth rate of 15%. Khazana, leading jewellers in South India has a very good name and brand image. First opened in 1989, it has grown from a single store to 41 plus stores in 2014 with a turnover of INR 3284Crore and an employment strength of over 2600 plus. Throwing light on expansion plans, Mr. Varghese shared that Khazana plans to open 100 showrooms across country in next 3 years, expand overseas in UAE, Singapore and also venture in ecommerce arena.
Explaining the Business Process of Khazana, Mr. Varghese apprised that firstly gold bullions are imported from South Africa and Switzerland or purchased from RBI, and then passed to goldsmiths with designs for every ornament given by Khazana team. Then, after karigars make the ornaments, jewellery is checked and hallmarked by Government of India Institute for purity, quality, durability and then Hallmarked. After Hallmark stamping, it is sent to showrooms for sales.
Highlighting the point of differences of Khazana jewellery, Mr. Varghese emphasized that the chances of gold contamination are nill and even diamonds are sourced by Khazana. Exclusive designers design unique designs of ornaments. Over a decade, Khazana has built dedicated customers across India. They were the pioneers to introduce ‘Purity’ Guarantee Cart with photo of the ornament, which ensures that if a customer ever wants to sell or melt the ornament will not lose a single rupee in the gold value. In today’s parlance, it is called BIS hallmarked ornament. Khazana has manufacturing hubs all over India and maintains quality, product finish and competitive pricing to its customers.
Talking about Management Trainee Program, Mr. Varghese said that a Management trainee after undergoing 6 months development training and on the job training becomes Area Sales Manager. An Area Sales Manager has cross functional stints in area of sales, Product (which includes sourcing, making and pricing), business development and marketing. The major roles of an Area Sales Manager include handling cluster of showrooms, sales and operations, team management, crises management, customer retention and acquisition and driving customer-focus approach within team.
The deeply insightful session was concluded with Mr. Varghese taking barrage of students’ queries and answering everyone.